Moscow (CNN) Hundreds of protesters have been arrested by police in the center of Moscow Saturday, in a crackdown on opposition supporters demanding free and fair elections.

Thousands of Russians pledged to attend the protest in the capital Saturday, after Russian authorities banned a number of independent and opposition candidates from taking part in municipal elections in September.

Authorities stated that the candidates were barred from running because they had failed to obtain a sufficient number of signatures to be put on the ballot paper. Opposition politicians and supporters have rejected this allegation.

The decision has sparked a number of protests across Russia this month, including the largest demonstration in recent years last weekend, when 22,000 people took to the streets. Protesters threatened to hold an even larger demonstration Saturday, which was subsequently declared illegal by the authorities.

Protesters take to the streets of Moscow after a number of opposition politicians were barred from running in municipal elections in September.

Hundreds of riot police were witnessed preparing for the protests Saturday morning, and were later seen linking arms to form a line, pushing protesters away from Moscow's City Hall.

OVD-info, a Russian democracy monitoring organization, said that at least 561 people have been detained thus far during the protests.

CNN witnessed clashes between protesters and police, with at least two protesters left with bloodied faces.

Moscow police said that 3,500 people took part in the protests, including 700 journalists and bloggers.

"A significant number of detainees are not residents of Moscow. All detainees are brought to the territorial police units for investigation," the State Ministry of Internal Affairs in Moscow said in the statement.

A number of arrests and raids were also carried out on opposition candidates in the days and hours leading up to the protest.

Alexei Navalny, Russia's most outspoken opposition figure, was among those detained during the week, and was later sentenced to 30 days in prison for allegedly violating the country's protest laws by calling for the demonstrations Saturday.

Navalny said on Instagram that he was detained as he left his apartment to go on a jog. "People are right when they say that sport is not always good for your health," he quipped. "I have been detained and am now at a police station wearing shorts like a stupid man."

Dmitry Gudkov, a fellow disqualified candidate, was also detained hours before Saturday's protest. He had previously claimed that the country's future was at stake due to the barring of opposition candidates.

"If we lose now, elections will cease to exist as a political instrument," he said. "What we're talking about is whether it's legal to participate in politics today in Russia, we're talking about the country we're going to live in."

Ilya Yashin, an ally of Navalny, reported on Facebook that he had also been detained hours before the demonstration following a raid on his house, and had been taken out of the Russian capital.

Other prominent activists to be detained include Kira Yarmysh, Navalyny's spokeswoman, Lyubov Sobo and Ivan Zhdanov.

Moscow's mayor, Sergei Sobyanin, warned on Twitter that police would react decisively to restore public order.

"According to information from law enforcement authorities, serious provocations are being prepared which pose a threat to the safety, lives and health of people," he said. "Attempts at ultimatums, disorder will not lead to anything good. Order in the city will be maintained." </s> MOSCOW: Tens of thousands of Russians staged what a monitoring group called the country’s biggest political protest for eight years on Saturday, defying a crackdown to demand free elections to Moscow’s city legislature.

Police rounded up scores of people after the demonstration in Moscow and at another rally in St Petersburg, and detained a leading opposition figure before it began. But the response from the authorities was milder than the previous week when more than 1,000 protesters were detained, sometimes violently.

The White Counter monitoring group said up to 60,000 people had attended the Moscow rally, describing it as the biggest in Russia for eight years. Police put turnout at 20,000.

A month of demonstrations over elections for the Moscow city legislature have turned into the biggest sustained protest movement in Russia since 2011-2013, when protesters took to the streets against perceived electoral fraud.

Crowds at the rally in Moscow roared “down with the tzar!” and waved Russian flags. They are demanding that opposition-minded candidates be permitted to run in a city election next month after they were not allowed onto the ballot.

“The authorities have become brazen. It’s time to defend our rights,” said Natalya Plokhova, a recruiting consultant.

As the scenes unfolded in Moscow, President Vladimir Putin was shown on state television in a leather jacket at a biker show organized by the Night Wolves motorcycle club on the peninsula of Crimea which Russia annexed from Ukraine in 2014.

Putin and the Kremlin have so far avoided commenting on the unrest over the Moscow city elections.

OVD-Info, a monitoring body, said 221 people were arrested at Saturday’s demonstration in Moscow and 80 in St Petersburg. A small number of other arrests took place in other cities, including Rostov-on-Don and Bryansk.

The Moscow protest was held with official permission, unlike last week’s demonstration. Afterwards, hundreds of mostly young people chanting “Putin is a thief” began gathering near the presidential administration building, prompting masked riot police to ring off the area and detain dozens.

Authorities had earlier warned protesters not to continue protesting after the officially authorized event. Until that point the rally had largely passed without major incident, apart from isolated police detentions and a smoke grenade set off nearby.

Ahead of the rally, police detained hunger-striking opposition activist Lyubov Sobol. Masked men raided her office and the police said they had information she and other activists were plotting a “provocation” at Saturday’s rally.

“I won’t make it to the protest. But you know what to do without me….Russia will be free!” Sobol wrote on Twitter.

Some pro-Kremlin politicians and officials have suggested that the West has helped orchestrate the protests. Kremlin critic Alexei Navalny and at least seven of his allies are in jail for breaking protest law.

Investigators have opened criminal proceedings against about a dozen people for what they say was mass civil unrest at earlier protests, a crime that carries a heavy jail term. They have also opened a money-laundering investigation into Navalny’s anti-corruption foundation.

Throngs of protesters, sheltering from rain under umbrellas, chanted “freedom for political prisoners” and “Russia will be free”. Several Russian musicians with youth followings, including rapper Face and electronic band Ic3peak, performed at the rally despite city authorities saying that would be banned.

The focus of protesters’ anger is a prohibition on a slew of opposition-minded candidates, some of whom are allies of Navalny, from taking part in a September election for Moscow’s city legislature. That vote is seen as a dry run for a national parliamentary election in 2021.

Authorities say the opposition candidates failed to collect enough genuine signatures to register. The excluded candidates say that is a lie and insist on taking part in a contest they believe they could win.

The ruling United Russia party’s popularity rating is at its lowest since 2011 and President Vladimir Putin’s own rating has fallen due to discontent over falling living standards.

At well over 60%, it is still high compared to many other world leaders however, and last year the 66-year-old former KGB intelligence officer won a landslide re-election and a new six-year term until 2024. </s> Police officers detain an opposition candidate and lawyer at the Foundation for Fighting Corruption Lyubov Sobol in the center of Moscow, Russia, Saturday, Aug. 3, 2019.

Helmeted police in Moscow rounded up nearly 200 of demonstrators and at least one opposition leader Saturday in an effort to squelch an unauthorized march protesting the exclusion of independent candidates from fall city council elections.

On Pushkin Square, a gathering point not far from the Kremlin where the protest march was to begin, police waded into a scattered crowd standing in light rain and detained dozens.

Officers quickly detained Lyubov Sobol, an opposition figure and one of the candidate hopefuls, as she was heading to the rally. She was taken away in a police van.

At least 194 people were detained, the independent monitoring group OVD-info reported, according to the independent Moscow Times reports. Police said they had detained 30 people

At another square along the planned 2.5-mile protest route along Moscow's Boulevard ring, helmeted riot police linked arms and swept people away.

The protest was livestreamed on Russian independent websites.

Authorities had warned the unauthorized protest march through central Moscow Saturday would bring a strong police response.

The city prosecutor’s office on Friday issued a statement warning that the attempt would be “a direct violation of the law. Law enforcement agencies will be forced to take all necessary measures to curb provocations.”

It was the third Saturday in a row that demonstrators turned out to protest the exclusion of opposition candidates for election to the 45-seat Moscow city council, which is controlled by the pro-Kremlin United Russia.

Authorities have denied that the opposition-backed candidates were specifically excluded from the ballot, claiming that they failed to garner enough valid signatures. The opposition said the allegations were false.

Sergey Radchenko, a history professor, told Moscow Times city authorities fear Kremlin-backed candidates would lose in big numbers if independents were on the ballot in September.

"Russian regional elections last fall showed that the regime can lose even when it resorts to electoral fraud," he told the newspaper. "If seats are lost to the opposition — first at the local levels, then perhaps even at the national level — the Kremlin will be placed in an untenable situation."

Last week, at an unsanctioned protest outside the Moscow mayor's office, more than 1,000 demonstrators were violently detained by police. An independent organization that monitors arrests put the number of detained at 1,373.

The initial demonstration, which had been officially approved, was held farther out from central Moscow.

Days before last week's demonstration, opposition figure Alexei Navalny was jailed for calling the protest. Also detained in advance were other prominent opposition politicians, including Ilya Yashin, Dmitry G. Gudkov and Ivan Zhdanov.

Navalny, a longtime political foe of Russian President Vladimir Putin, was later taken from jail and hospitalized, prompting fears that he had been poisoned.

Russia's Sklifosovsky toxicology institute said "poisoning substances were not found" in Navalny's samples, according to Russian news agencies. Navalny's personal physician, Anastasia Vasilyeva, blasted the official denying, saying it was "completely absurd" because bedsheets and clothes were not tested, Deutsche Welle reported.

The 43-year-old Navalny has called Putin's United Russia party a place of "crooks and thieves" and has accused the president's system of "sucking the blood out of Russia," the BBC reports.

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Moscow protest: Russian police detain about 200, arrest a rally leader </s> MOSCOW—A prominent Russian opposition leader, Alexei Navalny, said he was briefly detained by police Thursday as authorities initiated legal proceedings against him for organizing illegal protests. The legal manoeuvring was widely interpreted as a precautionary measure, intended to ensure that Navalny could be safely tucked away, if need be, in the prelude to the Russian presidential election March 18. The charge, which will be heard by a court at an undisclosed date, could result in a jail sentence of up to 30 days. Earlier, Navalny had predicted that he was likely to be jailed for the period around the election.

Russia opposition leader Alexei Navalny says he could defeat Putin in a fair election Russia opposition leader Alexei Navalny’s calls to boycott election may be illegal: Kremlin Navalny is barred from running in the election because of a criminal conviction that he and most rights advocates say was fabricated. Instead, he is leading a campaign to boycott the vote, trying to keep the turnout down and deny President Vladimir Putin the sweeping victory he seeks.

Navalny said on Twitter that he had been detained by seven police officers as he left a dental clinic and that he had been released after being informed of the proceedings against him. “They offered me a lift to wherever I wanted, but I declined and went back to work,” Navalny wrote in another post. “I don’t understand what happened and why seven people detained me.” Over the past decade, Navalny, 41, became Russia’s pre-eminent opposition figure by exposing corruption and the lavish lifestyles of members of Putin’s inner circle. In 2017, he led a nationwide grassroots presidential campaign that included protest rallies in many traditionally pro-Kremlin Russian cities. At the end of January, Navalny organized a series of rallies attended by thousands to protest the Kremlin in sub-zero temperatures. Navalny also organized large-scale protests in June and in March, but he could not fully take part in them because police detained him each time. Separately, Navalny’s campaign chief, Leonid Volkov, was detained at Sheremetyevo International Airport near Moscow on Thursday and held at a police station. On Tuesday, Roman Rubanov, the head of Navalny’s anti-corruption foundation, was placed under 10-day administrative arrest on the charge of organizing an unsanctioned rally. </s> MOSCOW: Russian police have detained prominent members of the opposition in Moscow ahead of a planned protest later on Saturday (Jul 27) which the authorities have declared illegal and warned could become violent.

The demonstration, due to be held outside the Moscow mayor's office from 11am GMT, is designed to protest against what the opposition says is the unfair exclusion of a raft of opposition-minded candidates from a Sept 8 local election in Moscow.

The authorities say the candidates were barred from running because they had failed to collect a sufficient number of genuine signatures in their support, an allegation the opposition rejects as false.

Although the election to select members of Moscow city's parliament is not a national one, opposition activists view it as an opportunity to try to gain a foothold in the Russian capital where Kremlin-backed candidates have proved less popular in the past than in other parts of the country.

Kremlin critic Alexei Navalny was jailed for 30 days on Wednesday ahead of Saturday's protest and other members of the opposition have previously had their homes searched.

Ilya Yashin, a Navalny ally, said on Facebook on Saturday that police had searched his Moscow flat overnight before detaining him and driving him out of the Russian capital.

Kira Yarmysh, Navalny's spokeswoman, said on Twitter she and another activist had been detained on Saturday morning. Other activists had their homes searched.

Moscow Mayor Sergei Sobyanin warned on social media that the authorities would act decisively to guarantee public order.

"According to information from law enforcement authorities serious provocations are being prepared which pose a threat to the safety, lives and health of people," Sobyanin said in a statement.

"Attempts at ultimatums, disorder will not lead to anything good. Order in the city will be maintained."

Reuters reporters said there was a heavy police presence in central Moscow ahead of the protest with groups of ununiformed athletic-looking young men accompanying police.

Russia's Investigative Committee has already opened a criminal investigation into an opposition rally in June which it said may have obstructed the work of Moscow's electoral commission.

A protest in Moscow last weekend calling for the disbarred candidates to be registered was attended by more than 20,000 people, according to a monitor. </s> This article is more than 1 year old

This article is more than 1 year old

The Russian opposition figurehead Alexei Navalny and 15 others have been arrested in Moscow after he attempted to lead a protest before a presidential election that is expected to return Vladimir Putin to power for another six years.



Navalny, 41, was wrestled to the ground by officers on Sunday as he walked up Tverskaya, Moscow’s main thoroughfare. Amid chaotic scenes, police with truncheons fought off supporters who attempted to pull him free.

His arrest came shortly after police had forced their way into his headquarters in Moscow in an apparent attempt to disrupt an online broadcast of nationwide opposition rallies. Police said they were looking for a bomb.

Navalny, tweeting from a police van, said: “I have been detained. This means nothing. You are not rallying for me, but for yourselves and your future.”

He was later released without charge, his lawyer told Reuters, although he will have face court at a later date.

The anti-corruption campaigner, who has a large social media following, had called for rallies in support of an opposition boycott of the election.

The Kremlin critic is barred from standing for public office after being convicted on fraud charges that he says were trumped up to prevent him from challenging Putin at the ballot box.

Alexey Navalny (@navalny) Задержание одного человека теряет малейший смысл, если нас много. Кто-нибудь, придите и замените меня pic.twitter.com/TODVdF5lEm

Authorities in Moscow and St Petersburg refused to give permission for the protests. In Moscow, about 2,000 people defied bitter cold and a heavy police presence to gather in Pushkin Square, a short walk from the Kremlin.

“Putin is a thief!” the protesters chanted. “Six more years? No thanks!” read one sign. Pyotr Kuvshinov, a 20-year-old student, said: “These are not elections, if there is no choice. They have stolen our candidate from us.”

Youthful opposition members at one point scaled lampposts on the square and unfurled a Russian flag to cheers from the crowd. Protesters later briefly marched towards the Kremlin. Scattered protests continued across Moscow into Sunday night, including outside the White House, the Russian government building.

Vladimir, a 70-year-old academic who attended the rally in Moscow, said: “We want to live in a democratic country. But people in our country have been taught not to think.”

In St Petersburg, where police cracked down hard on an opposition rally in October on Putin’s 65th birthday, about 2,000 people demonstrated in the centre of the city. Ten people were arrested.

Navalny supporters also rallied in about 100 cities across Russia, from Vladivostok to Kaliningrad.

In Cheboksary, central Russia, 50 people were detained, while 45 people were taken into custody at a rally in Ufa, according to OVD-Info, a non-governmental group that tracks arrests. Other opposition supporters braved temperatures of minus 45C to attend a protest in Yakutsk, Siberia.

Facebook Twitter Pinterest Navalny told supporters: ‘You are not rallying for me, but for yourselves and your future.’ Photograph: Pavel Golovkin/AP

However, numbers at the rallies were far down on March and June, when Navalny brought tens of thousands of people out on to the streets to protest over alleged corruption by Dmitry Medvedev, the prime minister.

Police were also far more restrained, detaining about 250 people nationwide compared with more than 1,000 in June.

Navalny has already served three protest-related prison sentences since March, and he was nearly blinded in one eye last year when a Kremlin supporter with alleged links to the security services threw a chemical in his face.

Although Navalny has huge support among Russian liberals, many opposition members remain suspicious of him because of his links to Russia’s nationalist movement. Yulia, a protester in Moscow, said: “I’m here because I hate Putin, not because I like Navalny.”

Navalny's army: the Russians risking all to oppose Vladimir Putin Read more

Navalny says Putin is afraid to face genuine challengers at elections, and accuses the Kremlin of handpicking and approving rival candidates. Although Navalny is polling at about 2%, his supporters say an election campaign would have allowed him to capitalise on growing discontent over corruption and rising poverty.

There is precedent for this: Navalny unexpectedly took almost 30% of the vote at Moscow’s mayoral election in 2013, securing second place and almost forcing the Kremlin’s candidate into an embarrassing run-off.

The rallies on Sunday are unlikely to set alarm bells ringing in the Kremlin, which is keen to present a positive image of Russia before the World Cup in June. They also present Navalny with the challenge of rejuvenating his protest movement before the election.

Speaking in an interview before the rallies, Gleb Pavlovsky, a former Kremlin spin doctor who now supports the opposition, said: “Navalny has done a very important thing – he has returned politics to Russia. But Navalny has a big problem – he is unable to capitalise on his success.” </s> Moscow: Russian Opposition leader Alexei Navalny has been freed after a brief spell in police detention in Moscow as thousands rallied against a March election expected to extend Vladimir Putin's Kremlin term.

"I'm free," Navalny said on Twitter late on Sunday, adding: "Today has been an important day... Thanks to all those who were not afraid to fight for their rights."

Heeding a call by Putin's bete noire, thousands braved freezing temperatures to stage rallies in dozens of cities to protest upcoming "pseudo-elections," as Navalny and his supporters refer to them.

In Moscow, Navalny chanted "Swindlers and thieves" at a rally in the city centre on Sunday before several police officers pounced on the 41-year-old Opposition politician, knocking him to the ground and dragging him on to a bus.

Authorities said earlier Navalny would be charged with organising an unpermitted protest, adding he had been taken to a police station.

The Opposition leader urged Muscovites not to give up.

"You are not rallying for me, but for yourselves and your future," he tweeted.

About 4,000 people turned up for the unsanctioned rally in Moscow, with many chanting "Down with the czar" and brandishing placards saying "Voters' strike."

Authorities beefed up security, dispatching police vans and passenger buses to the city centre, but police largely refrained from arresting protesters. A crowd of protesters was later allowed to walk down to Red Square.

One group of protesters walked several kilometres and reached the government headquarters as police watched on.

Authorities estimated the Moscow turnout at around 1,000 people.

Ahead of the Moscow rally police broke into Navalny's headquarters using a power saw. Police also detained several members of Navalny's team.

More than 250 people were detained across the country, according to OVD-Info, an independent monitor.

Sunday's turnout paled in comparison to last year's protests when tens of thousands demonstrated against corruption among Russia's elite in March and June, 2017.

Police unleashed a severe crackdown afterwards, arresting more than 1,000 people including schoolchildren.

Navalny himself served three jail sentences of 15 days, 25 days and 20 days for organising unauthorised protests in 2017. </s> Protest monitor says at least 561 people are arrested at the rally – more than one in 7 of those officially taking part

MOSCOW, Russia – Police arrested more than 500 people as they gathered in Moscow on Saturday, July 27, to demand fair local elections, the latest in a wave of protests after authorities blocked opposition candidates from the ballot paper.

Around 3,500 people took to the streets for the unauthorized rally, according to official figures. Several of the arrests were violent and police used batons against protestors, Agence France-Presse reporters at the scene saw.

The demonstration came a week after the capital's biggest protest in years, when some 22,000 marchers called on officials to reverse rulings and allow opposition activists to stand for the city council in September.

Since then investigators have raided the homes and headquarters of several disqualified candidates, while top Kremlin critic Alexei Navalny was jailed for 30 days for calling the fresh protest.

"Honestly, I'm scared," 42-year-old IT worker Alexei Sprizhitsky told AFP at the demonstration on Saturday. (READ: Russian protesters rally against Kremlin policies)

He said the last time he had seen this level of pressure on activists was in 2012, when President Vladimir Putin's return to the Kremlin after 4 years as prime minister sparked popular dissent.

Other leading opposition figures and would-be candidates were arrested in the hours leading up to the Saturday's protest, which comes amid declining living standards and a fall in Putin's approval ratings.

Local polls are a rare opportunity for dissenting voices to participate in political life as anti-Kremlin parties have been squeezed out of parliament over Putin's two decades in charge.

OVD Info, which monitors demonstration, said at least 561 people had been arrested at the rally – more than one in 7 of those officially taking part.

The organization reported that arrested protesters suffered from various injuries including a broken nose and head fractures.

Security was tight in central Moscow and police shut down the area outside city hall where protesters were planning to gather, forcing participants out onto side streets.

"This is our city!", "Shame!" and "We want free elections," the crowd chanted as police blocked off the site.

Politician and disqualified candidate Dmitry Gudkov was arrested shortly before the march. Earlier he had said the future of the country was at stake.

"If we lose now, elections will cease to exist as a political instrument," he said.

"What we're talking about is whether it's legal to participate in politics today in Russia, we're talking about the country we're going to live in."

While pro-Kremlin candidates enjoy the support of the state, independent candidates say they have been made to jump through countless hoops in order to get on the ballot for the city polls.

After activists and ordinary Muscovites staged pickets last week, including outside the local election commission building, investigators said they were launching a criminal probe into obstructing the work of election officials.

If found guilty, organizers risk up to 5 years in prison.

Navalny ally Ivan Zhdanov said he had been arrested shortly ahead of the demonstration. Barred candidate Ilya Yashin meanwhile announced he was detained in the early hours of Saturday morning following a raid on his home.

Would-be candidate Lyubov Sobol, who this week launched a hunger strike, was arrested at the demonstration.

Moscow Mayor Sergei Sobyanin called the unauthorized protest a "security threat", adding that "order will be ensured according to the relevant laws".

Elena Rastovka, a 68-year-old pensioner at the demonstration, told AFP: "I've been afraid all my life, but enough is enough. If we stay at home, nothing will change.

"Authorities arrest people who want to challenge them. Look at what they're doing – the authorities do not like the people."

Some said it was the authorities' heavy response that had turned a local issue into a major protest movement.

"Who would have thought it would become important to take part in such a bizarre and boring affair as the Moscow parliament election?" asked Viktoria Popova, a 30-year-old illustrator, ahead of the rally. – Rappler.com </s> MOSCOW: Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny has been freed after a brief spell in police detention in Moscow as thousands rallied against a March election expected to extend Vladimir Putin's Kremlin term.

"I'm free," Navalny said on Twitter late Sunday, adding: "Today has been an important day... Thanks to all those who were not afraid to fight for their rights."

Heeding a call by Putin's bete noire, thousands braved freezing temperatures to stage rallies in dozens of cities to protest upcoming "pseudo-elections," as Navalny and his supporters refer to them.

In Moscow, Navalny chanted "Swindlers and thieves" at a rally in the city centre Sunday before several police officers pounced on the 41-year-old opposition politician, knocking him to the ground and dragging him on to a bus.

Authorities said earlier Navalny would be charged with organising an unpermitted protest, adding he had been taken to a police station.

The opposition leader urged Muscovites not to give up.

"You are not rallying for me, but for yourselves and your future," he tweeted.

- 'Down with the czar' - 

 About 4,000 people turned up for the unsanctioned rally in Moscow, with many chanting "Down with the czar" and brandishing placards saying "Voters' strike."

Authorities beefed up security, dispatching police vans and passenger buses to the city centre, but police largely refrained from arresting protesters. A crowd of protesters was later allowed to walk down to Red Square.

One group of protesters walked several kilometres and reached the government headquarters as police watched on.

Authorities estimated the Moscow turnout at around 1,000 people.

Ahead of the Moscow rally police broke into Navalny's headquarters using a power saw. Police also detained several members of Navalny's team.

- 'Not scared' -

 More than 250 people were detained across the country, according to OVD-Info, an independent monitor.

Sunday's turnout paled in comparison to last year's protests when tens of thousands demonstrated against corruption among Russia's elite in March and June, 2017.

Police unleashed a severe crackdown afterwards, arresting more than 1,000 people including schoolchildren.

Navalny himself served three jail sentences of 15 days, 25 days and 20 days for organising unauthorised protests last year.

But many protesters said Sunday authorities would not intimidate them.

"These are not elections because we already know the result," Elena Ruzhe, 62, told AFP in Moscow.

"I'm not scared to protest," added the former culture ministry worker.

Protester Alexandra Fedorova, who wore a fur coat, said it was wrong not to let Navalny take part in the vote.

"I don't see a future. There is nobody to vote for," the 27-year-old said.

- 'I want change' - 

 Protesters expressed similar sentiments in the second city of Saint Petersburg where around 1,500 people rallied, some chanting "Russia without Putin" and "Putin is a thief."

"I want change," Andrei Petrov, 20, told AFP in the former imperial capital. "We are tired of living in this quagmire."

Earlier in the day opposition supporters protested in far eastern Russia and Siberia, including in the northern city of Yakutsk where people rallied despite temperatures of around minus 45 Celsius (minus 49 Fahrenheit).

In the Ural city of Yekaterinburg around 1,000 people turned up, with the city's mayor joining the crowd.

"What we are being offered now is not an election," the outspoken mayor, Yevgeny Roizman, told the gathering.

Navalny -- seen as the only politician able to take on Putin -- has built a robust protest movement, tapping into the anger of a younger generation yearning for change.

He says the upcoming election will be little more than a coronation of Putin who is expected to win a fourth presidential term, becoming the longest-serving Russian leader since Stalin.

Putin's spokesman Dmitry Peskov warned unsanctioned rallies would lead to "certain consequences" -- a thinly-veiled promise of punishment.

Last year Navalny mounted a forceful bid to run for president but officials ruled him ineligible due to a criminal conviction which he says is politically motivated.

Navalny has said he would use the full force of his campaign -- including over 200,000 volunteers -- to organise "voters' strikes" and encourage Russians to stay away from polling stations on election day.

After 18 years of leadership, both as president and prime minister, Putin fatigue is spreading across Russia.

But the post-Soviet turbulence of the 1990s remains deeply ingrained in Russia's collective psyche, making many reluctant to take to the streets, observers say.
Several thousand people attend a rally in Moscow organized by opposition members due to several opposition candidates being disqualified from regional elections. The protests turned violent and police detained about 1,000 people, including politician Alexei Navalny.