Anti-Kremlin protesters scuffle with police in Russia

ST PETERSBURG, Russia, Mar 3 (Reuters) About 300 Kremlin opponents, shouting ''Russia without Putin'', broke through police lines to block the main thoroughfare in Russia's second largest city of St Petersburg today.

Police in riot gear fought back with batons and detained dozens of demonstrators, including politician Eduard Limonov, a leader of ''Other Russia'', an opposition umbrella group, which organised the protest.

Violent anti-Kremlin protests have become rare in Russia under President Vladimir Putin's government, which critics accuse of suppressing opposition before the 2008 presidential election when Putin is to step down.

Earlier several thousand demonstrators defying a police ban marched through the centre of the city to protest at the Kremlin's tightening grip on power in what they called a ''March of the Discontented''.

''I came here because I am against this system, which does not like election, which does not allow demonstrations. I am against the abuse of power by bureaucrats,'' said Alesya Galkina, an activist with the opposition Yabloko party.

REUTERS SP PM1618