🟥 "Down with the Tsar!" — arrests at a Moscow protest

Russian police detained 60 young people for chanting anti-government slogans at a rally commemorating the 1993 coup d'état.

🟥 A loyalist rally turns into dissent

Mass detentions took place in Moscow during an annual rally marking the victims of what is often described as Russia's "mini civil war" of 1993.

The event is traditionally organized by the Communist Party of the Russian Federation (CPRF), a party that remains highly loyal to the Kremlin and openly supports Russia's war against Ukraine.

Yet such rallies have become one of the few legal opportunities for younger activists from more radical left-wing groups to take to the streets and express dissent.

🟥 Anti-war slogans return to Moscow

It was precisely these young activists — from independent left-wing and liberal groups — who transformed the march into a genuine protest.

They chanted "No to political repression," "Freedom for political prisoners," and "Power to the people, peace to the world." Police began carrying out mass arrests immediately after young demonstrators started chanting "Down with the Tsar!"

It was perhaps the first street protest in Moscow featuring anti-war slogans since March 2022.

🟥 The 1993 coup d'état

Every year on October 4, demonstrations are held in Moscow to commemorate the victims of the 1993 constitutional crisis.

During the confrontation between President Boris Yeltsin and the Russian parliament, Yeltsin deployed troops in Moscow and ordered tanks to shell the parliament building.

The concentration of power in the presidency that followed the events of 1993 laid important foundations for the authoritarian system later consolidated under Vladimir Putin.

[Source: Astra]