The good news: despite the total ban on the Russian March, despite the march of pro-Kremlin stooges on Taras Shevchenko Embankment, despite the fact that any participant had about an 80% chance of being detained, at least 1,500 people showed up. Honestly, I expected half that number. The not-so-good: absolute chaos. Nobody knew anything, it was unclear which way to go, and so on. That made it much easier to split the crowd into groups of 200–300 people, who then scattered in different directions. The usual: at least 400 people were detained. OMON (Russian riot police) once again proved themselves to be complete monsters. People were brutally beaten for absolutely no reason. The OMON units brought in from other cities, as usual, were the most zealous of all. The telling part: afterward we were walking along Old Arbat — me, Miloserdov, several participants, and journalists — when a police bus caught up with us from behind. Through the windows you could see it was packed to capacity. Both OMON officers and detainees were crammed inside like sardines. The bus slowed down next to us, a cop's head stuck out, and he asked a young female correspondent from Argumenty i Fakty (a Russian newspaper): Excuse me, could you tell us where the Arbat police station is? We've got detainees and we don't know where to take them.