The protest was the latest in a wave of demonstrations calling for fair local elections in the capital.
Around 3,500 people erupted into the streets for the unauthorised rally, according to official figures. Several of the arrests were violent and police used batons against protesters, AFP news hounds at the scene saw.
In all, "1,074 people have been arrested for a variety of offences during an unauthorised demonstration in the centre of the capital", Moscow police were quoted as saying by Russian news agencies.
The rally came a week after the capital's biggest protest in years, when some 22,000 marchers called on officials to reverse rulings and allow opposition activists to stand for the city council in September.
Since then Sherlocks have raided the homes and headquarters of several disqualified candidates, while top Kremlin critic Alexei Navalny was placed in durance vile
Maw! They're comin' to get me, Maw!
for 30 days for calling the fresh protest.
"Honestly, I'm scared," 42-year-old IT worker Alexei Sprizhitsky told AFP at the demonstration on Saturday.
He said the last time he had seen this level of pressure on activists was in 2012, when President Vladimir Putin
...President-for-Life of Russia. He gets along well with other presidents for life. He is credited with bringing political stability and re-establishing something like the rule of law, which occasionally results in somebody dropping dead from poisoning by polonium or other interesting substance. Under Putin, a new group of business magnates controlling significant swathes of Russia's economy has emerged, all of whom have close personal ties to him. The old bunch, without close personal ties to Putin, are in jail or in exile or dead from poisoning by polonium or other interesting substances...'s return to the Kremlin after four years as prime minister sparked popular dissent.