MOSCOW -- Fifteen people were arrested in Moscow on June 28 during a protest against Mayor Yury Luzhkov, RFE/RL's Russian Service reports.
Organizers of the "Day of Wrath" protest said a police warning before the demonstration that they would be arrested if they protested is an "absurd and illegal" prohibition that would not stop them from gathering.
Moscow police started coming to the central Tverskaya Square during the day and later stationed Special Police Force buses at the intersections, RFE/RL reports.
At about 7 p.m. tens of protesters began gathering on the square. They held banners reading "Take Back Our City" and "Moscow Minus Luzhkov" in front of Luzkhov's residence before police moved in and made the arrests.
The protest was the continuation of a "Day of Wrath" protest held on March 20 that police forcibly broke up. Demonstrators demanded Luzhkov's dismissal, the dissolution of the Moscow government, as well as reform of the Moscow Oblast government and the direct election of the heads of Russia's regions.
Among those arrested were Left Front party leader Sergei Udaltsov and For Human Rights movement leader Lev Ponomarev.