Russian opposition leader Navalny arrested minutes after appearing in rally

Navalny's personal Twitter feed carried a post to his followers saying he had been arrested.

Russian police wrestled opposition leader Alexei Navalny into a patrol wagon on Sunday, moments after he appeared at a rally to urge voters to boycott what he said would be a rigged presidential election in March.

Video footage posted on social media showed Navalny appear on Moscow's main thoroughfare, a few hundred metres (yards) from the Kremlin, to join several hundred supporters taking part in the protest, which the authorities had said was illegal.

He had only walked a short distance when he was surrounded by helmet-clad police officers. They wrestled him to the ground on the pavement, and then dragged him