Over a thousand protestors have been detained by police in Moscow, after a large-scale rally took place calling for free and fair elections.
Russian authorities say around 1-thousand-and-74 people were arrested while an independent monitoring group has put the number at 13-hundred.
Some 35-hundred protestors,... including journalists and bloggers,... took to the streets on Saturday after authorities banned a number of opposition and independent candidates from taking part in the September local elections.
Moscow says the candidates had failed to meet a sufficient number of signatures to qualify for the ballot.
Members of the opposition and their supporters have rejected this explanation.