Almost 1,400 people were arrested in Moscow and St. Petersburg, according to OVD, an independent group monitoring arrests.
The protest Monday was part of a day of demonstrations throughout Russian Federation spearheaded by Alexei Navalny, the anti-corruption campaigner who has emerged as Russia's most prominent opposition figure and who has announced he intends to run for president next year.
In a statement reported by state news agency Tass, police said Navalny would be charged with failure to follow police orders and violation of public order, an offence that could bring him 15 days in jail.
Moscow police blocked part of the street with big dump trucks in a bid to block the movement of protesters. The protesters were shouting "Putin is a thief", "Putin out" and "Russia without thieves".
Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny is escorted upon his arrival for a hearing after being detained at the protest against corruption and demanding the resignation of Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev, at the Tverskoi court in Moscow, Russia March 27, 2017.
"We are canceling the rally on Sakharov Avenue and moving it to Tverskaya Street", a main thoroughfare to the Kremlin, he said.
Moscow officials had agreed to allow Navalny's rally, but late Sunday, he said official interference had prevented contractors from erecting a stage at the agreed-upon venue and instead urged demonstrators to gather on Tverskaya Street, which was closed to traffic for the Russia Day festivities. He was jailed for 15 days after the March protests.
The Moscow demonstration was one of a nationwide day of protests Monday spearheaded by Alexei Navalny, the anti-corruption campaigner who has become the Kremlin's most prominent critic.
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Reuters witnesses saw more than 100 people arrested in central Moscow. Russian laws prohibit convicted people from running for office.
"While fulfilling the tasks on maintaining public order in the center of the capital a riot police serviceman of the Main Department of the National Guard in Moscow was injured".
Electricity in Navalny's office was also cut off, Navalnaya's spokeswoman told her 33,000 followers on Twitter.
Navalny had been due to attend the demonstration in Moscow, but his wife, Yulia, posted a photo of him being detained by police at his home.
The mood was tense as some groups of protesters vowed to go to the authorized location and anxious doing otherwise could get them arrested. Police in St Petersburg arrested about 50 protesters at the unsanctioned protest at Mars Field.
An unlikely object of dispute emerged at the St. Petersburg demonstration: As Russian journalist Arseny Vesnin and others noted, a giant yellow duck was among those detained by police, after being batted around in the air by the crowd.
The protests in March took place in scores of cities across the country, the largest show of discontent in years and a challenge to President Vladimir Putin's dominance of the country. "Alexei has been detained in the stairwell", she wrote about a half-hour before the demonstration was to begin.
Reuters witnesses saw a police vehicle leaving Navalny's apartment compound at high speed, followed a few minutes later by a minibus carrying around 10 policemen. More than 1,000 people were arrested during the protests that were aimed at applying pressure upon Putin, who is expected to be re-elected in the upcoming election.
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