Police violently clamp down on Moscow election protesters

Moscow riot police.
(Image credit: MAXIM ZMEYEV/AFP/Getty Images)

A protest in Moscow ended violently on Saturday when police detained more than 1,300 people in the largest crackdown at a rally in the city this decade.

The demonstrators had gathered to protest election authorities for disqualifying independent candidates from the vote for the Moscow city council, which is set to take place in September. Officers, reportedly clad in riot gear, used batons against the assembled and several protesters reported broken limbs and head injuries, including Aleksandra Parushina, a Moscow City Duma deputy, who said she was clubbed in the head by a police officer. The U.S. and European Union embassies in Moscow both described the response by police as "disproportionate."

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Tim O'Donnell

Tim is a staff writer at The Week and has contributed to Bedford and Bowery and The New York Transatlantic. He is a graduate of Occidental College and NYU's journalism school. Tim enjoys writing about baseball, Europe, and extinct megafauna. He lives in New York City.