Two prominent human rights activists were detained on Monday along with some 30 other protesters after staging an anti-government demonstration in front of the Moscow City Hall.
Lev Ponomarev and Sergei Udaltsov of the For Human Rights and Left Front groups were detained after leading a Day of Wrath protest against Mayor Yury Luzhkov's policies.
"We came here to demand the resignation of the Moscow mayor. The city authorities banned the rally illegally," Udaltsov told RIA Novosti.
Police said earlier they would prevent any attempt at staging an "unauthorized" rally in the city.
When Ponomarev and Udaltsov started giving out "black marks" - black scraps of paper symbolizing distrust of Luzhkov's policies - to the protesters, the 200-strong rally on downtown Moscow's Tverskaya Square was forcibly broken up by riot police.
Ponomarev, Udaltsov and several others were put into police vans and driven off.
A police spokesperson said more than 30 protesters were detained.
Many previous opposition rallies in Moscow have been outlawed and broken up by police.
Nearly 200 opposition protesters were brutally detained on May 31 during a March of Dissent rally on Triumfalnaya Square, not far from the site of Monday's protest.
The crackdown caused public outrage as riot police outnumbered demonstrators and people with disabilities as well as a World War II veteran were reportedly among those detained.
Several small Russian opposition groups hold Marches of Dissent on the last day of each month with 31 days in defense of their right to free assembly, as enshrined in the 31st article of the Russian Constitution.
MOSCOW, June 28 (RIA Novosti)
