■ More than 1,000 were arrested in ballot protests in Moscow.

Over 1,000 arrested at protest over election

MOSCOW — Russian police cracked down Saturday on demonstrators in central Moscow, beating some people and arresting more than 1,000 who were protesting the exclusion of opposition candidates from the ballot for Moscow city council. Police also stormed into a TV station broadcasting the protest.

Police wrestled with protesters around the mayor’s office, sometimes charging into the crowd with their batons. State news agencies Tass and RIA-Novosti cited police as saying 1,074 were arrested over the course of the protest, which lasted more than seven hours.

With the arrests of the mostly young demonstrators, several opposition activists who wanted to run for the council were arrested throughout the city before the protest. Alexei Navalny, Russia’s most prominent opposition figure, was sentenced Wednesday to 30 days in jail for calling an unauthorized protest.

The protesters, who police said numbered about 3,500, shouted slogans including “Russia will be free!” and “Who are you beating?”

Helmeted police barged into Navalny’s video studio as it was conducting a YouTube broadcast of the protest and arrested program leader Vladimir Milonov. Police also searched Dozhd, an internet TV station that was covering the protest, and its editor-in-chief, Alexandra Perepelova, was ordered to undergo questioning.

Police dispersed protesters from the area of the mayor’s office, but many demonstrators reassembled at a square about a mile away, where new arrests began, with police beating some to the ground.

Before the protest, several opposition members were detained.

Once a local, low-key affair, the September vote for Moscow’s council has shaken up Russia’s political scene as the Kremlin struggles with how to deal with opposing views in its capital of 12.6 million.

The decision by electoral authorities to bar some opposition candidates from running for having insufficient signatures on their nominating petitions sparked several days of demonstrations even before Saturday’s clashes.

The council, which has 45 seats, is responsible for the budget and is controlled by the pro-Kremlin United Russia party.

Alexander Zemlianichenko The Associated Press Police officers detain a woman during an unsanctioned rally Saturday in Moscow over the exclusion of opposition candidates.