TENS of thousands of communists, trade unionists and opposition supporters marked May Day yesterday with protests over the Kremlin’s moves to overhaul the Russian welfare system and tighten its grip on power.

Although it was Easter Sunday, the main festival in the Orthodox church calendar, protesters from across the political spectrum took to the streets all over Russia in a sign of escalating civil unrest. The rallies began in the eastern port of Vladivostok — where demonstrators carried a poster saying “Oh, if only comrade Stalin were here now” — before spreading to the Siberian cities of Omsk and Krasnoyarsk.

In Moscow 20,000 trade unionists marched to demand that the minimum wage be brought up to the cost of living. Around 5,000 communists with pictures of Lenin and Stalin and hammer-and-sickle banners also marched down the main avenue to the Kremlin. Gennadi Zyuganov, the Communist Party leader, praised Stalin for securing the Soviet victory over Nazi Germany — the 60th anniversary of which Russia will celebrate on May 9.

Police checked demonstrators with metal detectors and sniffer dogs. Most of the city centre had been shut off as part of a massive security operation for the Victory Day celebrations.

Riot police fought radical activists from the National Bolshevik Party and the Red Youth Avant-Garde group. Sergei Udaltsov, a leader of the group, said that trouble started after four members were detained for defacing portraits of President Putin. “Four people were detained. After this a fight broke out and they started beating old people,” he told NTV, his forehead covered in blood and bruises.

Hundreds of liberal opposition activists carrying banners saying “For Russia Without Putin” marched to Lubyanka — the infamous home of the KGB — to protest against the Kremlin’s monopoly on power.

Many also carried pictures of Mikhail Khodorkovsky, the oil tycoon expected to be jailed this month on charges of tax evasion and fraud.

“We know how to defend our motherland. We know how to defend our authority. We know how to defend our ideals,” Irina Khakamada, the liberal opposition leader, told a rally, “but we still haven’t learnt one thing: we still don’t know how to defend ourselves.”

Explore World News

• World Agenda

• Iraq News

• US & Americas News

• Europe News

• Middle East News

• Asia News

• Africa News

• Ireland News

Times Recommends

• Michael Jackson: Not the final chapter
• Indian Army spends10m rupees on golf buggies
• Brüno toned down for 15 rating