Brandishing a banner scrawled with "Stop the entry of nuclear waste", a dozen Germans and Russians demonstrated for about 10 minutes before the Russian protesters were seized, handcuffed and hauled away by police.

"German authorities must stop burying radioactive waste in Russia which threatens the health of future generations of Russians," Vladimir Sliviak, co-president of the Russian environmental group Ecodefense, said in a statement.

"German authorities must not take advantage of the fact that the Russian atomic industry can violate laws and ignore public opinion," he added.

According the Ecodefense, some 100,000 tons of nuclear waste have been imported to Russia over the past decade. Up to 90 percent of the waste is stored by Russian companies, awaiting final disposal, the group said.

The radioactive material arrives in Saint Petersburg's port in the northern part of the country, Ecodefense said, where it is carried by train toward the Ural mountains, and western and eastern Siberia.

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