Sixty protesters detained in Russia chanted "a New Year without Putin"

Russian authorities detained more than sixty people on New Year's Eve when opposition party supporters assembled to stage a protest in Moscow against Prime Minister Vladimir Putin.More than two hundred protestors chanted a call for "a New Year without Putin" at a square in central Moscow.

Police arrested  about sixty protestors on the grounds that they were trying to hold a rally without obtaining permission from authorities.The police say the detainees were released late at night.

Opposition parties are claiming there was vote manipulation in the Lower House election in December.

Putin, who is seeking to be elected Russian president again in March, dismissed the series of protests over the Lower House election as nothing unusual.Opposition groups are determined to hold protest rallies to drum up criticism of Putin and the present Russian administration as the presidential election approaches.