Kremlin admits police 'over-reaction' at protests

Truncheon-wielding Russian police who broke up opposition protests at the weekend over-reacted as they tried to keep order, a Kremlin spokesman said on Tuesday.

But the spokesman also said the scale of the clashes in Moscow and Russia's second city of St. Petersburg had been blown out of proportion by the foreign media. Riot police detained hundreds of protesters, including chess champion Garry Kasparov, who tried to hold a banned march in Moscow on Saturday. Police beat and kicked anti-Kremlin protesters in St Petersburg the next day. (Reuters)