Russian police shoved dozens of anti-Kremlin protesters to the ground and beat them with batons at a rally in the heart of St. Petersburg on Sunday.

About 3,000 demonstrators had been shouting slogans calling for the resignation of Russian President Vladimir Putin. Riot police became violent as protesters moved toward a railway station at the end of an officially permitted protest in Pionerskaya Square, witnesses said.

Riot police officers detain opposition leader Sergei Gulyayev in St. Petersburg on Sunday.
(Dmitry Lovetsky/Associated Press)

About 100 people were arrested, Interfax reported, quoting police. Witnesses said those rounded up were taken away in police buses.

After one of the clashes, an elderly woman comforted a young man who was prone on the sidewalk with blood on his face.

"So this is what they call democracy," a passerby remarked.

No information was available on how many people were injured.

Organizer says she was detained

One of the rally organizers, Olga Kurnosova, told the Associated Press that police detained her near her home a few hours before the rally.

She said by telephone from a police station that she was held for distributing brochures about the rally, which she said was an artificial pretext because city authorities had given permission for the demonstration.

The weekend protests were part of a series of "Dissenters' Marches" called by the Other Russia umbrella group that brings together an array of opposition factions.

In Moscow on Saturday, about 170 anti-Kremlin protesters supporting the coalition were arrested, including former chess grandmaster Garry Kasparov, who told reporters that "Russia was becoming a police state."

There were nine police officers for every protester, with more than 9,000 riot police breaking up the march.

"It is no longer a country ... where the government tries to pretend it is playing by the letter and spirit of the law," said Kasparov, leader of the United Civil Front, after he was fined the equivalent of $40 and released from jail.

With files from the Associated Press