Baton-wielding riot police roughly broke up a Moscow protest rally yesterday on the eve of Vladimir Putin’s return for a third Kremlin term, arresting morethan 400 people including top opposition leaders.

The clashes just over the river from the Kremlin were the most violent since the first rallies against the Russian strongman began in December and set an ominous tone ahead of his glitzy presidential inauguration ceremony to be held today.

Those arrested included three key leaders of the nascent protest movement against Mr Putin – the anti-corruption crusader Alexei Navalny, liberal leader Boris Nemtsov and ultra-left wing activist Sergei Udaltsov.

Police said they detained more than 400 people after demonstrators threw stones and waterbottles at officers and blamedthe violence on oppositionleaders who attempted to stagea sit-in protest in the middle ofthe crowd.

The event had been billed as a ‘March of Millions’ along one of Moscow’s main thoroughfares that was due to conclude at a square used for the first of several mass protests that erupted against Mr Putin’s dominant rule this winter.

The crowds stretched as far as the eye could see and organisers put the turnout figure in the tens of thousands. Police put the figure at only 8,000.

The first problems began when thousands of helmeted policetook control of the main bridge leading to the Kremlin toprevent the protest from spilling over and steered people into abottleneck that soon developed into a crush.

Mr Udaltsov and about 200 others then declared a sit-down strike in front of the bridge and a tense standoff lasting more than an hour eventually led to a concerted push by protesters against police ranks.

The police responded by unleashing batons against protesters – many screaming out in pain – and slamming people to the ground before dragging them by their arms and legs to waiting police vans.

“We will not leave until they free our comrades and they do not cancel the inauguration,” Mr Udaltsov shouted through a megaphone. “We will not leave,” he said as people chanted back “We Are the Power.”

Several policemen then dramatically stormed on stage and led Mr Udaltsov away to jeers from the crowd.

Mr Navalny was also seen being roughly arrested by several police while Mr Nemtsov was detained after climbing onto a metal camera stand and attempting to give an impromptu speech to the crowds.

Mr Putin’s spokesman Dmitry Peskov told independent Dozhd TV “we should not over-dramatise the situation” and condemned “provocations”.