Russian police detain at least 23 people at Moscow protest - monitors

Russian police detained at least 23 people on Wednesday at a protest in Moscow calling for punishment for police officers involved in the alleged framing of a journalist, the OVD-Info monitoring group said.

Police abruptly dropped drugs charges a day earlier against journalist Ivan Golunov, a rare U-turn by the authorities in the face of anger from his supporters who said he was framed for his reporting.

But his supporters decided to go ahead with a protest on Wednesday regardless and despite being warned by the authorities that their demonstration would be illegal.