A protest stroll organised in Moscow to mark the 50th birthday of Mikhail Khodorkovsky was broken up by police this afternoon, arresting somewhere between 30-46 people, according to accounts on social media.

The demonstrators, some of whom were carrying green and yellow balloons – the former colors of Yukos – were marching on Old Arbat street in Moscow when a group of police officers approached to disburse the gathering.  The arrests were captured on video by some bystanders, showing the police shoving supporters of Khodorkovsky onto multiple police buses to forcefully remove them from the scene.  Newspaper Novaya Gazeta has published a series of photos from the birthday march and the resulting arrests.

The Russian authorities have reacted aggressively to Khodorkovsky’s 50th birthday, launching a propaganda documentary on state-controlled NTV, while a denial-of-service attack of unknown origin also took down the Khodorkovsky.ru website.  Nevertheless, several thousand signatures were collected for a birthday card campaign, which were printed and presented to his mother at the Koralovo orphanage funded by the former business leader.

This week, more than 75 different video messages were released from both prominent Russians and international figures expressing congratulations and support for Khodorkovsky’s birthday, including Boris Akunin, Dmitry Zimin, Boris Nemtsov, Mikhail Kasyanov, Vladimir Ryzhkov, Markus Loening, Bill Browder, Sir Malcolm Rifkind, Adam Michnik, and Marieluise Beck, among many others.