At least nine activists who are calling for greater regional autonomy in Russia have been detained by police in recent days over protests calling for greater federalism in the country. Marches planned for Sunday were banned in Siberia and in the south of the country.

While "supporters of federalisation" in eastern Ukraine have won many plaudits from Russian politicians and state media, those promoting similar ideas in Russia's own regions have been interrogated and detained by police. The activists argue Moscow siphons off money that should go into local budgets and denies regional governments their rights under the constitution of the Russian Federation.

Two activists were detained on Sunday at a picket in support of federalisation in Yekaterinburg, a regional centre near the Ural mountains, and later charged with resisting police, organiser Svetlana Burdina told the Guardian.

A photograph she took at the event showed a police officer and a man in civilian clothes – one of a group of unknown burly men who surrounded the protestors and attempted to provoke them, Burdina said – detaining activist Stanislav Zharkov, who was wearing a T-shirt with the words "Stop feeding Moscow".

"We went out first and foremost to show our fellow residents that the constitution gives us more rights," Burdina said. "Some would say that we're analogous to what's going on in Ukraine, to separatism, but that's not true. We just want more rights and economic freedoms for the regions."

In Siberia's largest city, Novosibirsk, four organisers of a march for Siberian federalisation planned for Sunday were detained and questioned as part of a potential criminal case, according to the human rights organisation OVD Info. Authorities previously banned the march and threatened to block the BBC Russian service over an interview with an organiser.

At least a dozen activists from two opposition parties nonetheless held a picket for federalisation on another square in Novosibirsk, holding signs reading "Putin, stop robbing Siberia!" and "Bring back taxes to Siberia, bring back elections!" (Although Vladimir Putin reinstated gubernatorial elections in 2013, the ruling party retains control of which candidates are allowed to run through a "municipal filter" system.)

Also on Sunday, a dozen activists in the Siberian city of Omsk attempted to hold a rally called "Show Siberia to Moscow", which featured signs depicting the upside-down-T-shaped Siberian federal district as a middle finger. Police turned the protesters away from a central square on the grounds that another rally was taking place there to gather aid for eastern Ukraine, where pro-Russian rebels are fighting government forces.

Darya Polyudova, an organiser of the similarly banned march for the federalisation of Kuban – a historical name for the Krasnodar territory in southern Russia – was detained on Friday after an unknown man began arguing with her on the street, according to OVD Info. She was arrested for 14 days on charges of hooliganism, a fellow activist tweeted on Sunday.

Two organisers of the Novosibirsk march were detained in a neighbouring region on Thursday on suspicion of stealing a mobile phone and were not able to return in time for the planned protest, OVD Info and Russian media reported.