About 100 Detained At Unauthorized Rallies In Moscow, St. Petersburg - Interior Ministry

MOSCOW (UrduPoint News / Sputnik - 09th September, 2018) About 100 people were detained on Sunday during unauthorized rallies in Moscow and St. Petersburg, senior official of the Russian Interior Ministry Yury Valyaev told reporters.

Participants of the rallies are protesting against the proposed changes in the pension legislation.

"Some 100 people were detained in St. Petersburg and several people in Moscow. They were detained for participation in the unauthorized rallies," Valyaev said.

Approximately 30 people were detained during the rally in the city of Yekaterinburg, according to ombudswoman of the Sverdlovsk Region Tatyana Merzlyakova.

"The rally was unauthorized, actions of its participants contradicted the legislation. About 30 people have been detained," the ombudswoman said, adding that most of the detained activists had already been released.

Former Yekaterinburg Mayor Yevgeny Roizman said that he had also been delivered to a police station while Merzlyakova pointed out that he had arrived at the station voluntarily and had already left the site.

Two more people were detained in the southern Russian city of Volgograd.

On July 19, the Russian State Duma adopted in the first reading a bill on changes to the pension law. The bill proposed raising the retirement age from 60 to 65 years for men and from 55 to 63 years for women. The changes are expected to be implemented gradually starting from 2019.

On Thursday, Russian President Vladimir Putin submitted to the State Duma amendments to the bill on improving the pension system. The president's amendments have softened the proposed changes in the legislation, particularly, reducing the future retirement age for women from 63 to 60.