It was the dead of night, and all was quiet...
The city says the people have built homes on the land illegally, but the residents argue they were granted the land during the Soviet era and the courts should recognize their right to live there.
As they have done for many nights, on Wednesday they blocked the entrance to the Rechnik settlement, a rare slice of country life within the confines of the Russian capital, but on Thursday morning the bailiffs came with a court demolition order.
The barricaders were arrested and taken away, and the demolition machines moved in.
"At four o"clock in the morning there came police, an excavator, and the residents who were guarding the village were arrested, and one house was demolished," a villager told RIA Novosti.
A city police spokeswoman said officers were only working on the boundary of the settlement, and only bailiffs had gone on to its territory to carry out the court-ordered demolition.
Zhanna Ozhimina said 16 people had been detained.