Update from the RFE/RL Newsroom: U.S. State Department spokesman Jeff Rathke has said Washington is "troubled by the guilty verdict handed down in the latest action against Aleksei and Oleg Navalny."
"The decision is a disturbing development in our view, and it appears to be designed to further punish and deter political activism," Rathke told a December 30 press briefing in Washington. "This appears to be another example of the Russian government's growing crackdown on independent voices."
Moscow city police say that around 1,500 demonstrators came to Manezh Square to protest today's conviction of Russian opposition leader Aleksei Navalny and his brother Oleg, state-owned Russian news agency RIA Novosti reports.
Russian authorities in the past have given lowball estimates of attendence at political protests in what critics call an attempt to downplay the significance of such demonstrations.
Meanwhile, the web site OvdInfo.ru reports that at least 171 protesters were detained as of Tuesday evening in Moscow. The site claims at least two people were arrested on Manezh Square for smoking. The two men said they didn't even have time to light up, according to the report.
Moscow city police, meanwhile, said around 100 people had been arrested, RIA Novosti reported.
Photographer and prominent Russian blogger Rustem Adagamov -- a vocal Kremlin critic -- says Aleksei Navalny's "desparate and courageous" decision to defy his house arrest and try to attend the Moscow protest prevented the demonstration from becoming "a total failure."
Riot police are continuing aggressive efforts to clear Manezh Square of pro-Navalny protesters. Some demonstrators have been carried away by men in uniform and, it appears, in civilian clothes.
RFE/RL's Russian Service reports from the scene that police are mobilizing to clear Manezh Square of protesters who came out to demonstrate against today's conviction of opposition leader Aleksei Navalny and his brother Oleg.
Russian photographer Mitya Aleshkovskiy has posted a photograph of detained protesters inside a police paddy wagon.