MOSCOW, January 24. /TASS/. Four criminals cases have been initiated on charges of the use of violence against law enforcers during the January 23 unauthorized protests in Moscow, Yulia Ivanova, a spokeswoman for the Russian Investigative Committee’s Moscow department, told TASS on Sunday.

"The Investigative Committee’s Moscow department opened four criminal cases on charges of the use of violence against officials (article 318 of the Russian Criminal Code)," she said.

According to Ivanova, aggressive protesters inflicted bodily injuries to two Russian Guard officers and a policeman who were on duty during the unauthorized rally in central Moscow on January 23. One of them had pepper gas sprayed in his face. On the same day, a man drove his car onto a police officer demanding he stop the car.

On Saturday, Ivanova said that criminal cases had been opened on charges of the use of violence against the police, damage to property, and hooliganism after an incident when protesters beat law enforcers and damaged a Federal Security Service’s car in central Moscow.