Police in Moscow detained about 60 people at a rally organized by the Kremlin‑friendly Communist Party, the party said. The arrests were made as the event was concluding on Sunday, and the Moscow branch is attempting to secure the release of the detainees, who are largely young people.
The gathering marked the anniversary of the 1993 crackdown on a parliamentary uprising that ended with the use of tanks to shell the parliament building. Protesters chanted slogans such as “Freedom for political prisoners,” “For fair elections,” and “Down with the Tsar,” according to the Telegram news channel Ostorozhno Novosti.
The rally came amid growing public frustration over intensified Ukrainian drone attacks that have struck oil refineries and warehouses inside Russia, causing fuel shortages and disrupting daily life, including in Moscow.
The 1993 violence, which officially killed 123 people, was the culmination of a standoff between President Boris Yeltsin and hard‑line lawmakers who opposed his market reforms. Since the 1990s the Communist Party, led by 82‑year‑old former Soviet official Gennady Zyuganov, has been a major force in parliament while avoiding criticism of President Vladimir Putin, despite supporting Russia’s war in Ukraine. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said Putin is trying to weaken Ukraine’s resilience with escalating air strikes on Kyiv and other cities, and he added that Ukraine is open to a trilateral technical‑level meeting by the end of October, possibly in the UAE or other countries.
