As an image it could almost have been calculated to illustrate the gulf in power between President Putin and his opponents who took to the streets yesterday to denounce him as a dictator.

While Russian riot police bludgeoned supporters of the opposition movement led by Garry Kasparov, the former chess champion, a smiling Mr Putin was shown on state television entertaining Jean-Claude Van Damme, “The Muscles from Brussels”. Mr Putin, a judo black belt, greeted the Belgian actor and other martial arts experts at a fighting contest in St Petersburg. Over tea and cakes in the Konstantinovsky Palace, he praised their combat skills in mixed martial arts, a blend of different fighting styles that has few rules.

Van Damme made his name in action movies such as Hard Target, Sudden Deathand Maximum Risk, in which he usually took on a powerful enemy against almost insurmountable odds. Mr Kasparov and supporters of The Other Russia, an anti-Putin coalition, know the feeling after being confronted by thousands of riot police at demonstrations in Moscow and St Petersburg.

Both ended in violent clashes and hundreds of arrests in a show of force by the authorities, who are determined to prevent any repeat of last month’s opposition success, when 5,000 people breached a police line to march through St Petersburg.

Only about 2,000 gathered in a square in St Petersburg yesterday, confronted by 1,500 police and Interior Ministry troops. The authorities monitored the event from a helicopter, blocked streets and cut mobile telephone services in the area. Scores of protesters were beaten when clashes broke out as people left for a nearby Underground station. Crowds chanted “shame” while others shouted “stop the beating” and “Fascists — how much did Putin pay you?”

About 2,000 protesters rallied in Moscow on Saturday. About 9,000 riot police broke up the gathering, in Pushkin Square. Mr Kasparov was among 170 arrested as he attempted to reach the square and was later fined 1,000 roubles (£20) by a court for disrupting public order. Thousands of supporters of a pro-Kremlin youth group mounted their own demonstration near by. Moscow authorities had sanctioned a rally by The Other Russia at another square.

The authorities in St Petersburg had also sanctioned the rally but banned a march to the city government headquarters. Although organisers had not called on protesters to march, more than 150 people were arrested as riot police broke up the gathering. The demonstrations were the latest in a campaign by The Other Russia, called the “March of Dissent”, aimed at rousing public support for an antiPutin candidate in-presidential elections next year.

Mr Kasparov accuses Mr Putin of crushing democratic freedoms and of turning Russia into a police state. The Other Russia says that street protests are the only way to gather opposition to the regime because Mr Putin has created a tame parliament and controls domestic TV and newspapers.

Mr Putin enjoys approval ratings close to 80 per cent. A majority of Russians say that they would vote to give him a third term, even though the constitution bars him from standing in the elections next March. Whoever he anoints as his successor in the Kremlin is all but guaranteed to win.

The Kremlin accuses The Other Russia of seeking to destabilise the country.

Mr Kasparov told reporters yesterday: “The Putin regime doesn’t pay attention any more to legalities and relies on brute force. By the end of this year Russia will sink into political turmoil.”

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