Authorities arrested several people demonstrating in front of police station following arrest of senior official who revealed corruption • Number of dead from Corona in Russian capital doubled

• Opposition activist arrested by Moscow police // Photo: AP

A protest rally in the Russian capital ended Friday with the arrest of several opposition activists, alleging that they violated the city's Corona closure.

The protesters, including a number of prominent human rights activists, protested the arrest of eight journalists, who issued protests over the arrest of Ilya Azar, a member of the Moscow City Council who exposed corruption and illegal conduct by police in the Russian capital. 

Moscow police arrest protesters // Photo: Reuters

Over the past two days, police have arrested 20 people in the capital, including five opposition city council members and several prominent journalists. This is the biggest wave of arrests in the city since the city council elections that took place earlier this year. 

Meanwhile, city authorities have admitted that the number of dead from Korona in the city is greater than has been shown so far in official figures released by the Russian Ministry of Health to the country's media. 

According to the new data, 1,561 people died in the Moscow capital from the deadly virus, and not 621 as authorities claimed. Yesterday, Russia announced that 232 people died across the country in one day as a result of the virus. 

Russian authorities have boasted of the low mortality rate presented by the country as proof of the superiority of the country's crackdown, but while the rate of infection in the country continues to be high, more and more holes are emerging in the narrative that is trying to draw Moscow.