Thousands protest against corruption across Russia

Thousands of Russians yesterday demonstrated across the country to protest at corruption, defying bans on rallies which were called by prominent Kremlin critic Alexei Navalny -- who was arrested along with at least 130 others.

Navalny called for the protests after publishing a detailed report this month accusing Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev of controlling a property empire through a shadowy network of non-profit organisations.

The report has been viewed over 11 million times on YouTube but Medvedev has so far made no comments on the claims.

Navalny, who has announced his intention to run for president in next year's election, has been rallying supporters in major Russian cities in recent weeks.

In Moscow, Navalny called on supporters to walk along the main Tverskaya street, and people congregated on the nearby squares lined with dozens of police vans and rows of riot officers as a police helicopter hovered overhead.

Police detained Navalny shortly after 2:00pm as he was walking to the protest, putting him in a police minibus, and the surrounding crowd briefly tried to block it from driving off shouting "Shame!" and "Let him out!"

Moscow police estimated protest turnout at seven or eight thousand people.

Police moved to detain protesters to clear the square, with some using truncheons and pepper spray apparently dispersed in the crowd, AFP correspondents observed.