UPDATED
SATURDAY, APRIL 14, 2007

Police arrested 170 activists who
took part in the protest [AFP]

Police in Moscow have detained Garry Kasparov, the Russian opposition leader, along with at least 170 other activists, ahead of a banned anti-Kremlin protest.

Thousands of riot police closed off the centre of the capital on Saturday, as authorities tried to stop opponents of Vladimir Putin, the Russian president, from taking to the streets.

Moscow city authorities had already refused permission for the protest, saying that pro-Kremlin youth activists had already booked the venue for their own rally.

Boris Gryzlov, the parliamentary speaker, warned that people could be sucked into violence at the march.

Kasparov was arrested because "he came and began to provoke police into taking harsh action, while knowing that the demonstration on Pushkin Square was forbidden," a police spokesman was quoted as saying by Interfax news agency.

"March of Discontent"

Other Russia, a coalition of Kremlin opponents, organised the "March of Discontent" to protest against what they say is a squeezing of democratic freedoms under Putin.

Kremlin supporters say Other Russia is trying to create instability ahead of the 2008 presidential election, when Putin has said he will step down.

Led by Garry Kasparov, the former chess champion, and Mikhail Kasyanov, a former prime minister, Other Russia is thought to have marginal influence, as the vast majority of Russians support Putin, who has overseen rising incomes and political stability.

But the Kremlin and its supporters are wary of Other Russia, alleging the group is using street protests to stoke an uprising against Putin's rule.

Kasyanov was prevented by police from entering Pushkin Square, about 1km from the Kremlin, and many of his supporters were detained, the Interfax news agency reported.

"What's going on with the authorities? Have they lost their minds? What's going on with this military operation?" Kasyanov said afterwards.

Police drafted in

On Saturday, police, some wearing body armour, checked the documents of people passing through the square.

Insignia on the police vehicles showed that many of them had been drafted in from outside Moscow.

Russia's mainstream liberal parties, which some critics say have been co-opted by the Kremlin, have largely kept their distance.

Grigory Yavlinsky, head of the Yabloko party, refused to participate in the Moscow march, saying in a statement that "the ideological and political composition of the these actions are unacceptable for Yabloko".

Riot police earlier this year used truncheons to disperse protesters at opposition marches in St Petersburg and the city of Nizhny Novgorod.