Russians protest reforms that could keep Putin in power
Police surrounded them and began making arrests late in the evening after participants started a march down one of the city's main boulevards, with officers in riot gear forcefully rounding up protesters and placing them in vans.
Over a hundred people were detained, according to the rights monitoring group OVD-info. There was no immediate confirmation from police or the government on numbers of arrests.
People also took to the streets of St Petersburg to protest against the amendments.
A vote earlier this month amended Russia's constitution, handing Putin the right to run for two more presidential terms, an outcome the Kremlin described as a triumph.
Opposition activists say the vote was illegitimate and that it is time for Putin, who has ruled Russia for over two decades as president or prime minister, to step down.
Two Russian activists involved in the campaign against the constitutional reforms were detained last week and the homes of five others were searched, ahead of the scheduled protest, which had not been sanctioned by authorities.
Mass gatherings are banned in the capital because of COVID-19 restrictions. Even in normal times, protests of more than one person require the authorities' advance consent.
