Russian opposition leader detained during protest

Police have detained hundreds of protesters across Russia, including opposition leader Alexei Navalny, after thousands took to the streets to demonstrate against corruption and demand the resignation of Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev.

The protests, reckoned to be the biggest since a wave of anti-Kremlin demonstrations in 2011 and 2012, come a year before a presidential election that Vladimir Putin is expected to contest, running for what would be a fourth term.

Opinion polls suggest the liberal opposition, which Navalny represents, has little chance of fielding a candidate capable of unseating Putin, who enjoys high ratings. But Navalny and his supporters hope to channel public discontent over official corruption to attract more support.

Police detained Navalny, who hopes to run against Putin, as he walked along central Moscow’s Tverskaya St with supporters, part of an unsanctioned rally, as a police helicopter circled overhead.

Police put Navalny in a truck around which hundreds of protesters crowded, trying to open its doors.

“I’m happy that so many people came out [on to the streets] from the east [of the country] to Moscow,” Navalny said, moments before he was detained.

The Kremlin said on Saturday that plans for the central Moscow protest were an illegal provocation.

Grigory Okhotin, one of the founders of OVD Info, a human rights organisation that monitors detentions, said about 600 people had been detained in Moscow yesterday.

Police said about 7000 to 8000 people were on Tverskaya St and surrounding areas by mid-afternoon and put the number of detentions by late afternoon at around 500.

— Reuters