BRUSSELS (Reuters) - European Union leaders on Monday condemned the “heavy-handed” police crackdown on opposition protests in Russia at the weekend and said freedom of speech and assembly were fundamental rights.

“I was very concerned to see reports of police harassment and arrests of politicians and peaceful demonstrators in Russia,” European Commission President Jose-Manuel Barroso said in a statement.

“The right to peaceful free speech and assembly are basic fundamental human rights and I very much regret that the authorities found it necessary to take such heavy-handed action.”

Russian riot police beat opposition activists on Sunday and detained nearly 200 people at protest rallies against President Vladimir Putin a week before parliamentary elections.

Among those detained were Boris Nemtsov and Nikita Belykh, leaders of the Union of Right Forces (SPS) party who are both running in the December 2 election. They were later released.

EU President Portugal said that freedoms of association, assembly and speech were among the civil rights the 27-nation bloc regards as essential.

“The Presidency calls on Russia to refrain from any action which might be perceived in any way as harmful to Russia’s international reputation,” it said in a statement.

One of those detained in Moscow on Sunday was opposition leader and former world chess champion Garry Kasparov -- a move the United States condemned on Sunday as part of “aggressive tactics” by authorities.

The European Parliament president, Hans-Gert Poettering, said Kasparov’s arrest and the actions of the security forces against protestors were disproportionate in their severity.

Putin’s opponents accuse the Kremlin chief of cracking down on the freedoms won after the 1991 fall of the Soviet Union and of creating what they say is an unstable political system dependent on Putin alone.

Kremlin officials say the opposition marches are aimed at attracting attention in the West and that the activists are a mixed bag of marginal politicians with little public support.