Police in Moscow have said they had arrested more than 1,000 people during opposition protests over the handling of upcoming elections in the Russian capital.
In all, "1,074 people have been arrested for a variety of offences during an unauthorised demonstration in the centre of the capital", police officials were quoted as saying by Russian news agencies.
The rally comes a week after the capital's biggest demonstration in years, when some 22,000 people protested the authorities' decision to block opposition candidates from standing for the city council in September.
Investigators raided the homes and headquarters of several disqualified candidates in the run-up to the fresh rally today.
Top Kremlin critic Alexei Navalny was jailed for 30 days for calling for the demonstration.
Other leading opposition figures and would-be candidates were also arrested in the hours leading up to the event, which comes amid declining living standards and a fall in President Vladimir Putin's approval ratings.
OVD Info, which monitors protests, said at least 317 people had been arrested in the first hour of the demonstration.
Local polls are a rare opportunity for dissenting voices to participate in political life as anti-Kremlin parties have been squeezed out of parliament over Mr Putin's two decades in charge.
Security was tight in central Moscow and police shut down the area outside city hall where protesters were planning to gather, forcing participants out onto side streets.
Politician and disqualified candidate Dmitry Gudkov was arrested shortly before the march. Earlier he had said the future of the country was at stake.
"If we lose now, elections will cease to exist as a political instrument," he said.
"What we're talking about is whether it's legal to participate in politics today in Russia, we're talking about the country we're going to live in."
While pro-Kremlin candidates enjoy the support of the state, independent candidates say they have been made to jump through countless hoops in order to get on the ballot for the city polls.
After activists and ordinary Muscovites staged pickets last week, including outside the local election commission building, investigators said they were launching a criminal probe into obstructing the work of election officials.
If found guilty, organisers risk up to five years in prison.
Navalny ally Ivan Zhdanov said he had been arrested shortly ahead of the demonstration.
Barred candidate Ilya Yashin meanwhile announced he was detained in the early hours of this morning following a raid on his home.
Would-be candidate Lyubov Sobol, who this week launched a hunger strike, was arrested at the demonstration.
Moscow Mayor Sergei Sobyanin called the unauthorised protest a "security threat", adding that "order will be ensured according to the relevant laws".
Nearly 11,000 people indicated interest in the rally on Facebook.
Police asked media to notify the authorities if they planned to cover the protest and urged Russians to skip the rally altogether.
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