Almost 1,400 people were arrested in Moscow and St. Petersburg on Monday, according to OVD, an independent group monitoring arrests.
Russia's most prominent opposition leader has been arrested outside his home in Moscow. In St. Petersburg, dozens were reported detained by police at the protest.
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.
In a crackdown meant to quell a movement of youthful activism, numerous arrests appeared to target students and young people, watchdog groups reported.
That is likely to embolden him to call for more protests and keep Putin, who is expected to run for and win re-election next year, under rare domestic pressure. The government had not approved the location of the protest and said it was unlawful.
Some activists made quacking sounds or held up plastic ducks, which have become a symbol of the anti-corruption rallies since a Navalny expose early this year alleged the prime minister had built a house for the waterfowl at one of his estates.
"We are against the corruption that is costing the future of our young people", said Maria Badyrova, a protester in Moscow.
Those protests were the largest since 2012, drawing thousands of people - including many teenagers - to rallies nationwide, angered by a report Mr Navalny published accusing Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev of corruption.
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She adds that while the mood in the square had seemed peaceful earlier Monday, "the situation is changing very quickly" with "images streaming in of police and protesters pushing toward one another" as bystanders struggle to get out of the way.
"We are cancelling the rally on Sakharov Avenue and moving it to Tverskaya Street", a main thoroughfare to the Kremlin, he said. The protesters were shouting "Putin is a thief", "Putin out" and "Russia without thieves".
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 center of Moscow.
Russian news media reported an estimated 5,000 people turned out in the Siberian city of Novosibirsk, the largest crowds since demonstrations in 1991 calling for the dissolution of the Soviet Union.
At least 200 people are believed to have been detained in the anti-corruption protests across Russian Federation so far. However, public rallies protesting against corruption took place in cities and towns across Russian Federation today.
Russian police say Navalny has been arrested on charges of that could bring him 15 days in jail.
His team was broadcasting from a studio set up in Moscow, though the electricity was periodically cut, forcing the presenter to speak in total darkness.
Russian leading opposition figure Alexei Navalny meets with his supporters as part of his presidential election campaign rally in Tula, Russia, May 27, 2017. "I want to live in a modern democratic state and I want our taxes to be converted into roads, schools and hospitals, not into yachts, palaces and vineyards".
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