MOSCOW, July 30. /TASS/. France has turned into a trendsetter as to disproportionate action by police officers during protest rallies, the Russian Foreign Ministry said on Tuesday in response to a tweet from the French Foreign Ministry in connection with an unsanctioned rally in Moscow on July 27.

"As to ‘disproportionate’ action by police during manifestations, France is unfortunately among the global trendsetters," the Russian Foreign Ministry blogged in Twitter. "Many even in the West have a long way to go to such ‘high’ democratic standards," the ministry said.

"We, for our part, express concern over the health of French nationals (including journalists) who fall victim to police abuse on a regular basis," it added.

The ministry supplied the commentary with a video footage of crackdown on protests in Paris in 2015, showing French police officers in riot gear battering protesters with shields and rubber hoses.

Earlier, the French Foreign Ministry pointed in a tweet to a sizable number of people arrested and detained during the unsanctioned rally in Moscow on July 27.

Police and national guardsmen detained more than 1,000 for participation in the unauthorized demonstration in the center of Moscow on July 27. More than 600 of them were nonresidents. According to police sources, more than 3,500 gathered for the demonstration and 295 were detained for violating public order.

The authorities had warned the protestors in advance they would be brought to justice for legal violations. Moscow’s Mayor Sergei Sobyanin quoted police sources as saying preparations had been underway for provocations that might endanger people’s security, life and health. The Moscow police force issued a call for refraining from participation in the demonstration and promised to take the necessary measures to maintain public security and prevent violations of law and order.

The Moscow prosecutor’s office is conducting an administrative investigation of 15 unregistered candidates in the forthcoming Moscow Duma elections who organized illegal demonstrations on July 14 and 27.