Russian nationalists protest against monument to Heydar Aliyev

Moscow authorities plan installing the monument near the Baku movie center on Usiyevich Street in the city's northwest, Itar-Tass reports.

Sources at Moscow's Interior Department said several members of a radical nationalistic grouping called the Movement Against Illegal Migration, as well as residents of the district joined the protesters.

All of them said they vehemently oppose the authorities plans as regards the monument.

The policemen detained three participants in the meeting who began drinking liquors in a small park near the movie house after the public gathering.

In the meantime, the Executive Director of the All-Russia Congress of Azerbaijanis, Eldar Kuliyev, said the meeting upset the Azerbaijani community.

The monument to Heydar Aliyev, a Soviet-era statesman who became President of the Azerbaijani Republic in the mid-1990's, was designed by sculptors Sergei Shcherbakov and Natig Aliyev.

The Azerbaijani Embassy handed it to Moscow City authorities as a gift.