More than 600 detainees in Moscow during a demonstration against the city government

Police repressed more than 3,500 protesters gathered in the center of the capital with a cane slogans like "free elections" or "shame".

Saturday's demonstration was not authorized by the Moscow City Council, but a similar march that took place a week ago brought together between 12,000 and 22,000 people under the same claim (the figures correspond to the estimates of each source).

The number of prisoners varies from the more than 600 registered by the organization OVD Info, specialized in monitoring political arrests in Russia, and the 295 reported by the police at the state press agency TASS.

The call for this Saturday, like the previous ones, was launched by the opposition after 57 independent candidates will be banned for the parliamentary elections of 8 September in Moscow, whose mayor is Sergey Sobianin.

The most recent surveys have shown that the ruling party led by President Vladimir Putin was lagging behind and that opposition candidates would win the majority of banks.

Alexei Navalny, one of the most recognized opposition leaders in Russia, convened the march this Saturday, but He was sentenced to 30 days in prison last Wednesday for breaking "the rules of the demonstrations" by calling an unauthorized protest.

In fact, the the police broke into two Internet TV studios that broadcast the events and arrested its leaders, Vladimir Milonov and Alexandra Perepelova, said the site Daily mail.

Other opposition leaders arrested this week are Ilia Yashin, Liubov Sobol or Dmitri Gudkov, who pointed out that "it's about to know if, in Russia today, it is possible to legislate".

Amnesty International criticizedopen and shameless attempt by the Russian authorities to intimidate the opposition"and warned of his fears of a" mbad crackdown to come. "

Among the 57 excluded are the main opponents of the Kremlin: Liubov Sobol, who works with Navalni; the former deputy Dmitry Gudkov, the leader of the liberal party Yabloko Sergey Mitrojin and Ilia Yashin.