Moscow protesters learn rules of engagement in training sessions The truncheons are made of plastic, but the scene playing out in central Moscow with protesters chanting anti-Kremlin slogans and the riot police seizing them one by one looks only too realistic. Alexander Archagov, a psychologist and rights activist, is holding a training session that aims to teach opposition protesters how to stand up for their rights as police clear streets of demonstrators. The training session is responding to the current wave of protests, one of the largest since President Vladimir Putin's return to the Kremlin in 2012.