Moscow: A wave of anti-government demonstrations rolled across Russia on Monday as people gathered in scores of cities to protest corruption and political stagnation despite vigorous attempts by authorities to thwart or ban the rallies.

The police detained the architect of the national protests, Kremlin critic Alexei Navalny, as he emerged from his apartment building to attend a rally that he had forced into the centre of Moscow in the face of efforts by the city to limit it to a secondary boulevard. 

Mr Navalny's wife posted a picture of the detention on his Twitter account with the caption "Happy Russia Day!", referring to the national holiday Monday. In addition, workers at his headquarters reported that their electricity and internet connection, used to transmit updates from around the country, had been severed.

Baton-wielding riot police broke up an anti-government demonstration in Moscow. Several thousand protesters, including many young people, crowded central Moscow at Mr Navalny's behest chanting "Russia without Putin" and "Russia will be free".

The Kremlin has repeatedly dismissed those allegations and accused Mr Navalny of trying irresponsibly to whip up unrest.

"Corruption is stealing our future," read one placard next to an image of a yellow duck, a reference to a duck house which Mr Navalny said Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev owned on a vast country estate, an allegation Mr Medvedev says is "nonsense."

Police detained 500 protesters at a in Russia's second-largest city St Petersburg on Monday, the Interior Ministry said.

Reuters witnesses saw more than 100 people arrested in central Moscow. 

Authorities in Moscow said Monday's protest was illegal and drafted in hundreds of riot police who moved to detain people they regarded as trouble makers, loading them onto buses to be charged.

"I want to protest against corruption and the fact that the authorities are not fighting it," said Alexander, an 18-year-old student brandishing the Russian flag.

Dima, an 18-year-old florist, said he wanted Prime Minister Medvedev to return what he said were the politician's ill-gotten gains. Mr Medvedev, a close Putin ally, flatly denies wrongdoing.

"I'm not afraid if I get detained," Dima said.

Russian state media ignored the protests.

Organisers in more than 200 cities across Russia had filed requests to hold demonstrations in what could be the largest anti-government outpouring in years. Protests unfolded in numerous cities as the sun moved westward, even in some where they had been banned outright.

In the eastern city of Kazan, for example, a permit was for 7am, a markedly early hour in a country that generally gets going around 10am. Authorities had told organisers that anything later in the day would interfere with a major soccer match. Protesters showed up anyway.

Mr Navalny has said repeatedly that the demonstrations should be nonviolent. Protesting "doesn't mean there will be an awful revolution or a civil war," he said on his YouTube talk show June 1. "We will live better, because they will stop stealing from us," he said.

Mr Navalny's website reported that protests were held in more than a half-dozen cities in the far east, including the major ports of Vladivostok and Khabarovsk and in Siberia's Barnaul.

Eleven demonstrators were arrested in Vladivostok, according to OVD-Info, a website that monitors political repressions.

Mr Navalny has become the most prominent figure in an opposition that has been troubled by factional disputes. He focuses on corruption issues and has attracted a wide following through savvy use of internet video.

Mr Navalny has announced his candidacy for the presidential election in 2018.

New York Times, Agencies