Hundreds of anti-government protesters defied thousands of Russian riot police in Moscow on Saturday to stage an unauthorized demonstration.
At the head of the "Dissenters March" was Garry Kasparov, the former chess champion turned political activist. He was detained by police for several hours. Authorities said they detained 170 protesters.
But a Kasparov aide, Marina Litvinovich, said as many as 600 people were detained — although she said about half were released quickly.
It was the fourth time in recent months that anti-Putin demonstrations — all called Dissenters Marches — have been broken up with force or smothered by a huge police presence. Earlier protests were thwarted in Moscow, St. Petersburg and Nizhny Novgorod.
A similar march planned for Sunday in St. Petersburg also was banned by authorities.
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