Prilepin -- the editor of the Nizhny Novgorod bureau of Novaya Gazeta and a member of the opposition movement The Other Russia and the banned National Bolshevik Party -- had been in Moscow to accept the Yasnaya Polyana award for his latest novel, "Sankya," the Moscow Times reported.

Prilepin told the newspaper he was detained so the head of the local organized crime department, Maxim Bedyrev, could question him about a trip he made to Warsaw last week to attend a session of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe.

Alexander Gorbatov, a spokesman for the Nizhny Novgorod police, said he had no information about the incident and Bedyrev could not be reached for comment.

Prilepin, who helped organize a Dissenters' March in Nizhny Novgorod last March, said he is used to the attention from authorities.

"Every time I travel, the police check on me," he said.