MOSCOW -- Police in Moscow detained about 20 opposition activists when they tried to lodge a collective appeal against the municipal development plan to city authorities.
The leader of Left Front opposition movement, Sergei Udaltsov, told RFE/RL that about 100 activists of opposition movements and groups including his group, the Moscow Council, the United Civil Front, the Communist Party, and Yabloko gathered in front of the Moscow city administration offices in order to submit the complaint and demand a new public hearing over development plans.
Udaltsov said the gathering was not a protest but merely an attempt to collectively hand in a complaint to city officials.
He accused police of attacking the activists and said they detained around 20 of them.