ST. PETERSBURG, Russia - Club-swinging riot police clashed Sunday with opposition supporters as an anti-Kremlin protest dispersed in Russia's second-largest city, chasing small groups of demonstrators, beating some on the ground and hauling them into police buses.

It was not immediately clear what sparked the violence after the rally, which city authorities had authorized and took place under a heavy police presence with at least one helicopter hovering above.

Although city authorities gave permission for the rally in a square on the edge of central St. Petersburg, they had banned plans for the demonstrators to march afterwards to the city government headquarters.

Police trucks and helmeted officers blocked the planned march route. At the end of the 90-minute-long rally, organizers did not exhort them to conduct the banned march but suggested they go on their own to the city government building over the next few days. When the rally dispersed, most participants went to a nearby subway station, where clashes broke out.

In one, police chased a group that included Sergei Gulyayev, a member of the city legislature who had been arrested at a protest in March. Police grabbed some members of the group and pounded them in the head with nightsticks before putting them on buses; it was not immediately known if Gulyayev was among those taken away.

In another clash, police charged a group holding a banner professing love for the city.

The violence came a day after clashes at a similar opposition protest in Moscow, where police detained at least 170 people, sometimes with harsh force. The protests in both cities were called to focus on complaints that Russia under President
Vladimir Putin is strangling democracy ahead of presidential and parliamentary elections.

"Yesterday, it became clear that the authorities won't be making any concessions. They have started a war on people," Eduard Limonov, head of the National Bolshevik Party, told the rally.

"Putin and his team are sitting on sacks of gold, at the same time the country is breaking apart in all spheres," said demonstrator Sergei Niluopv, a 56-year-old teacher.

Protesters, police clash in Russia - Yahoo! News

Cops do their jobs very well in russia unlike they do in the states. Cops crackdown on war protesters and anti-putin in russia but in D.C Cops dont even have the guts to take on HOLLYWOOD when they protested against Mr Bush and the War. See wanna do something about HOLLYWOOD Behavior? BOYCOTT THE MOVIES!!! Dont pay your $8 by going to see a movie.Thats how you hurt HOLLYWOOD!!!