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Some 1,500 people gather for unauthorized rally in Moscow, about 100 detained — police

Police repeatedly urged people not to violate public order

MOSCOW, December 30. /TASS/. About 100 people were arrested in Moscow’s central Manezhnaya Square late on Tuesday on charges of violation of public order, the press service of the Moscow police department reported.

“On Tuesday evening, about 1,500 people gather in Moscow’s Manezhnaya Square for an unsanctioned rally,” the press service said. “Police repeatedly urged people not to violate public order. As a result, about 100 people were detained.”

Earlier on Tuesday, Moscow’s Manezhnaya Square was cordoned off by police as reports on an unauthorized protest rally here appeared in social networks.

Moscow’s Zamoskvoretsky Court on Tuesday handed down a 3.5-year suspended sentence to Alexey Navalny and sentenced to 3.5 years in prison his brother Oleg Navalny after finding both of them guilty of embezzlement in the Yves Rocher company. The court also ordered Alexei and Oleg Navalny to pay over 4 million rubles ($70,500) in favor of a complainant company in the trial as well as 500,000 rubles ($8,800) each in fines.

Navalny will remain house arrest until his suspended sentence takes legal effect. Earlier, that measure of restraint was extended for him until mid-February.

In 2013, Alexey Navalny was convicted in the Kirovles case. He and ex-head of the Vyatka Timber Company Pyotr Ofitserov were found guilty of embezzling Kirovles company property. Navalny got a five-year suspended sentence, and Ofitserov a 4 year suspended sentence.