Protests and anti-corruption demonstrations in Russian Federation reached historic levels Monday, and several hundred people were detained across the country.
The 41-year-old Navalny's anti-corruption videos have needled the country's most powerful and drawn to the streets crowds unseen since a wave of protests against President Vladimir Putin's re-election for a third term in 2012.
Tens of thousands of Russians joined the protests and almost one thousand were arrested. Police later confirmed the arrest, saying he could get up to 15 days in jail on charges of failing to follow police orders and violating public order. The General Prosecutor's Office had warned that a protest there would be illegal.The area of Tsverskaya Street near where Navalny's supporters congregated was hosting an officially-organised festival, with actors re-enacting periods of Russian history.
An unlikely object of dispute emerged at the St. Petersburg demonstration: As Russian journalist Arseny Vesnin and others noted, a giant yellow duck was among those detained by police, after being batted around in the air by the crowd.
In his June 11 YouTube video, Navalny accused authorities of making it impossible for demonstrators to hold the rally in Moscow by pressuring businesses that organizers were seeking to rent equipment from.
The marches marked an unusual day of significant public dissent in Russian Federation and one that brought rare political disruption to the heart of Moscow, as demonstrators defied police and marched down the city's main street. In Moscow, thousands of angry protesters held an unsanctioned rally on Tverskaya, the capital's main street. After opposition activist Ilya Yashin, 33, was detained and put in a police bus, he tweeted an image from inside, showing himself with a half-dozen youths in Moscow.
Regardless of his arrest, anti-corruption rallies have taken place all over Russian Federation, ending up with hundreds, possibly even thousands of arrests of demonstrators.
Young protesters take part in an unauthorized opposition rally on Tverskaya street in central Moscow on Monday.
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"They turned off the electricity in the studio", said presenter Leonid Volkov in complete darkness shortly before the channel went off air, to come back online after a few minutes.
The demonstrators appeared to skew predominantly younger - those who were born or grew up during Vladimir Putin's 17 years of leading Russian Federation.
Some of the young people, and they, the young people, made up the largest group among the protesters, tried to convert the equally young officers.
The protest was called over government plans to demolish Soviet-era apartment blocks in the city.
The protests were called by Navalny, who is seeking to found a political movement against the Kremlin. The protesters chanted loudly in Moscow. The protests are the second mass action since March called by Navalny who has announced his intention to contest the polls that are due next year.
"We aren't afraid because we have nothing to lose", said Roman Egorov, 21, a student from Moscow, who sat perched on a stack of metal crowd-control fences as he videotaped the protests on his iPhone. People shouted "Putin is a thief" and "Russia without Putin" before being dragged away by police.
Moscow officials had agreed to allow Mr Navalny's rally, but late on Sunday, he said official interference had prevented contractors from erecting a stage at the agreed-upon venue and instead urged demonstrators to gather on Tverskaya Street, which was closed to traffic for the Russia Day festivities.
There was no immediate comment from police on why Navalny had been arrested or where he was taken.
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