Navalny had called on his supporters to take to the streets after being arrested last weekend on his return to Moscow, the first time since being poisoned with a military grade nerve agent in August.

In central Moscow, Reuters reporters estimated at least 40 0 people gathered in one of the biggest unauthorized rallies in years.

This was the moment police seized Navalny's wife, Yulia.

Other close allies were also arrested.

Police beat protesters with batons, bundled them into police fans.

They chanted Freedom for Navalny!

But also Putin is a thief and disgrace.

Navalny and his supporters hope the mass demonstrations will pressure the authorities to let him go.

Theo ex lawyer accuses Vladimir Putin of ordering his killing, which the Russian president denies.

A protest monitor group O.

V.

D Info, reported more than 1000 arrests at rallies in nearly 70 towns and cities.

Opposition figures said the scale and sweep of those protests was unusual in Russia's Far East, protesters braved temperatures a long way below freezing.

The West has told Moscow to let Navalny go, sparking new tensions in already strained Russia ties as US President Joe Biden launches his administration.

In Brussels, EU lawmakers called for the block to halt the Nord Stream two gas pipeline to take Russian natural gas to Europe.

Russian mobile phone and Internet services suffered outages, making it harder for protesters to communicate among themselves and share video footage online.

Navalny could face years in jail over legal cases that he calls trumped up.

Supporters hope to tap into public frustration over years of falling wages as well as economic fallout from the pandemic.

But Putin's grip on power looks unassailable.