Russian President Vladimir Putin led Russia's first major naval parade in years the day after violent police detentions of hundreds of anti-government protesters in Moscow.

Putin on Sunday morning went aboard one of the vessels taking part in the Navy Day parade in St. Petersburg, on the Gulf of Finland. The parade, the biggest in years, included 43 ships and submarines and 4,000 troops.

Putin is spending the weekend away from Moscow, the Russian capital, where nearly 1,400 people were detained Saturday in a violent police crackdown on pro-democracy protesters.

Police wielded batons and wrestled with protesters around the Moscow City Hall after thousands thronged nearby streets, rallying against a move by election authorities to bar opposition candidates from the Sept. 8 ballot for the Moscow city council.

A Russian group that monitors police arrests says nearly 1,400 people were detained in a police crackdown on an opposition protest in Moscow, the largest number of detentions at a protest in the Russian capital this decade.

OVD-Info said the number of the detentions it logged for Saturday's protest reached 1,373 by early Sunday. The group has monitored arrests since 2011.

Russian police violently dispersed thousands of people who thronged Moscow streets on Saturday to protest election authorities for disqualifying independent candidates from the Sept. 8 election for the Moscow city council.

Several protesters reported broken limbs and head injuries. Police justified their response by saying the rally was not sanctioned by authorities.