Thousands have protested across Russia’s vast expanse today, including in:

In the capital, hundreds marched across the city centre.

Crowds chanted “Putin, resign!” and Putin, thief!” in reference to an opulent Black Sea estate reportedly built for the Russian leader, which was featured in a widely popular video released by Alexei Navalny’s team.

Protesters later moved to the Matrosskaya Tishina prison where Mr Navalny is being held, but were met by riot police who pushed the march back and chased protesters through courtyards.

In this city in eastern Siberia, one of the biggest rallies took place, with several thousand people marching across the city.

 More than 100 protesters have been detained.

An estimated 2,000 marched across Russia’s second-largest city. 

Occasional scuffles erupted as some demonstrators pushed back police who tried to make detentions.

In the far eastern port city on the Pacific Ocean, at least 120 people were detained after protesters danced on the ice and rallied in the city centre. 

Additional reporting by AP

Thousands have taken to the streets in Russia for the second weekend straight over the arrest of opposition leader Alexei Navalny. 

The fierce critic of Vladimir Putin was detained by police in mid-January after returning to Moscow, five months after a near-fatal poisoning. He accuses Mr Putin of ordering his murder, which the Kremlin denies.

On his return, Mr Navalny was jailed for 30 days on the request of Russia’s prison service, which alleged he had violated the probation of his suspended sentence from a 2014 money-laundering conviction that he has rejected as political revenge.

A court is due to meet next week to consider handing him a jail term of up to three and a half years.

Here is what happened when he was arrested after landing in Moscow earlier this month:

Additional reporting by AP

More than 2,100 people have now been detained in total by Russian police at unauthorised protests across the country on Sunday, according to a protest monitoring group.

OVD-Info regularly update their figure online, which is the big number in red on this website:

Rallies are being held across the country for the second weekend in a row to demand the release of Alexei Navalny, the jailed opposition leader.

Tens of thousands took to the streets in dozens of cities last weekend to protest against the poisoning and imprisonment of the Kremlin critic.

Journalists and photographers were among thousands arrested nationwide, often violently, by Saturday evening, according to the OVD-Info protest monitor group.

Oliver Carroll reported on the protests last weekend:

Over in Russia’s far east, protesters have shown their support for Alexei Navalny while out on ice:

You can keep up to date with what is happening on the ground by watching live footage here on Independent TV:

This is how one message explained the presence of police vans and batons, according to our Moscow correspondent, Oliver Carroll: 

Images have shown police detaining protesters from Moscow to St.Petersburg to Siberia. 

Authorities warned rallies were not authorised and would be broken up – as they were last weekend.

Here are some glimpses of what is happening on the ground as protesters are met by police:

The opposition leader’s wife is reportedly one of the hundreds who have been detained at rallies.

Yulia Navalnaya was detained at an unauthorised protest in Moscow on Sunday, Alexei Navalny’s allies said on social media.

Additional reporting by Reuters

More than 1,500 people have been arrested across the country so far, according to a protest monitoring site. 

Protesters have rallied in support of Alexei Navalny – jailed in mid-January – on Sunday for the second weekend in a row, despite a sweeping crackdown on his allies and the near-certainty of a confrontation with police.