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Police detain opposition figure Navalny in Moscow

Now he is taken to a police station, where protocols on administrative offenses will be filed

MOSCOW, June 12. /TASS/. The Moscow police detained oppositionist Alexei Navalny, the Interior Ministry’s press service said on Monday.

"Alexei Navalny, who posted on the Internet calls for moving from Sakharova Avenue, where the opposition’s authorized rally continues, to Tverskaya Street for participating in an unauthorized rally there, has been detained by the police, and now he is taken to a police station, where protocols on administrative offenses will be filed," the press service said.

The imputed violations, according to the Administrative Code’s articles, refer to violations of the established order in organization of a rally, meeting, demonstration or march.

The documents later on will be presented to the court for further decisions.

Navalny faces up to 30 days of administrative arrest, his lawyer Vadim Kobzev wrote on Facebook page. "Alexei has been detained, and his phone and shoe strings have been seized. He is in the department of the Interior Ministry in the Danilovsky district," Kobzev said, noting that Navalny is accused of a repeated administrative offence, which is punishable by up to 30 days of arrest or a fine of between 150,000 ($2,600) to 300,000 rubles ($5,300).

The Moscow authorities had approved a rally, organized by the opposition, for June 12 between 13:30 and 16:00 from 38 Mashy Poryvayevoy Street to 9 Akademika Sakharova Avenue. On Sunday evening, some of the rally’s organizers called on the participants to relocate the rally to Tverskaya Street and begin the event at 14:00.