The rally had been authorized by Moscow authorities and was held to commemorate people killed during the October 1993 constitutional crisis, when forces loyal to President Boris Yeltsin attacked the Russian parliament after a confrontation with lawmakers.

The detentions reportedly intensified after participants moved beyond the event’s commemorative theme and began chanting slogans including “Freedom for political prisoners,” “For fair elections” and “Down with the Tsar.”

About 60 people detained

OVD-Info initially reported that around 20 people had been detained during the march and taken to the Krasnopresnenskiy police station.

Later information cited by the rights group put the total at about 60. OVD-Info said the reported detainees included 26 Communist Party participants, 30 members of the liberal Yabloko party and several other activists.

The Communist Party said its Moscow organization was working to secure the release of those detained and provide assistance. Russian reports later said some detainees had begun to be released.

The reported number has not been matched in the sources reviewed by a detailed public police account identifying every detainee or explaining the legal basis for each detention.

Rally shifts toward political slogans

The event began as a Communist Party commemoration of the victims of the 1993 crisis.

According to OVD-Info, participants later marched from Krasnopresnenskaya Zastava and shouted slogans including calls for freedom, an end to political repression, the release of political prisoners and opposition to Roskomnadzor, Russia’s federal media and communications regulator.

The chant “Down with the Tsar” was also reported during the march.

OVD-Info said security forces began detaining participants more aggressively after that slogan was heard, but the organization did not establish that the slogan itself was the formal legal reason for any particular detention.

That distinction is important because the available evidence documents the timing and circumstances of the detentions, but does not establish a single official reason applying to all those taken into custody.

Detainees were not all Communists

The incident did not involve only Communist Party members.

According to the figures reported by OVD-Info, Yabloko members accounted for about half of the approximately 60 detainees, while Communist Party participants made up another group. Other activists were also reportedly detained.

Yabloko representatives, however, said they did not have information confirming that their party members had participated in the Communist Party’s event, according to Russian media reporting.

The differing accounts reinforce the need to distinguish between people reported as detained at or around the rally and people whose participation in the event has been independently established.

The Communist Party’s place in Russian politics

The Communist Party of the Russian Federation is one of Russia’s longstanding parliamentary parties and has maintained a presence in the State Duma since the 1990s.

It occupies an unusual position in Russian politics. The party criticizes some government policies but has generally avoided directly challenging President Vladimir Putin and supports Russia’s war in Ukraine.

That political position makes the Moscow incident notable without establishing that the Communist Party itself had organized an anti-government protest.

The rally was a Communist Party event commemorating the 1993 crisis. The more directly critical slogans were reported as emerging during the march.

What happened in 1993

The rally commemorated the violent constitutional crisis of September and October 1993.

Yeltsin ordered the dissolution of parliament during a prolonged confrontation with lawmakers opposed to his government and economic reforms. Supporters of the legislature later seized a television broadcasting facility, after which the military attacked the parliament building, known as the White House, in Moscow.

Russian authorities recorded 123 deaths from the violence, while unofficial estimates have put the toll considerably higher.

The Communist Party has continued to hold commemorative events around the anniversary, linking the episode to its criticism of the political legacy of the post-Soviet period.

No evidence of a broader uprising

The available reporting does not establish that the Moscow rally represented a broad anti-government uprising.

The event was organized by an established parliamentary party and had been authorized by Moscow authorities. The reported political slogans and subsequent detentions occurred during the later part of the event.

The incident is therefore better understood as a specific confrontation over political expression during an authorized gathering rather than evidence of a wider movement against the Russian government.

Official grounds for detention remain unclear

The principal unresolved question is why individual participants were detained.

KPRF and OVD-Info reports establish the approximate number of detainees and provide accounts of the circumstances surrounding the arrests. But the sources reviewed do not provide a comprehensive statement from Moscow police identifying the legal grounds for the detentions.

OVD-Info’s initial account also noted that some people carrying flags were detained without a specified reason.

That leaves the legal basis for the individual detentions unresolved in the public record reviewed for this report.

Political expression remains tightly constrained

The Moscow detentions occurred against a broader backdrop of restrictions on political activity and public dissent in Russia.

But the specific incident should not be used to establish that every detention was ordered because participants criticized Putin or the Russian government.

What can be established is narrower: an authorized Communist Party event ended with dozens of reported detentions after participants voiced increasingly political slogans, and those detained included people from different political groups.

The Communist Party says it is working to secure their release, while the legal grounds for the detentions remain insufficiently documented in the public sources reviewed.

Reporting Credit: Communist Party of the Russian Federation (KPRF); OVD-Info; Yabloko; Moscow authorities and law-enforcement sources where available; Russian electoral and court records concerning relevant political restrictions.

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