Moscow ? President Vladimir Putin fast-tracked the transfer of power to his newly elected protege Monday and signaled the Kremlin won’t back down from its pull-no-punches anti-U.S. foreign policy or ease up on its critics at home.

President-elect Dmitry Medvedev credited his overwhelming election victory Sunday to Putin’s policies that have “so effectively been pursued in recent years.”

Medvedev has stressed he will pursue Putin’s foreign and domestic agenda, and in a sign that little would change, Russia squeezed natural gas supplies to Western-leaning Ukraine, and police in Moscow manhandled opposition protesters who denounced the election as a farce.

Also in Moscow, a pro-Kremlin youth group kept up criticism of the United States, a frequent target of Putin’s wrath in eight years as president. Hundreds of young people took aim at the U.S. Embassy in a march to denounce American foreign policy.

More than two months before Medvedev’s inauguration, Putin put him in charge of presidential State Council meetings – a symbolic show of trust and a display that they will rule together. The move may be designed to boost Medvedev’s authority in the eyes of officials at the body’s meetings – and the ordinary Russians who see them on the TV news.

Medvedev has vowed to make Putin his prime minister, enabling the forceful leader to maintain strong influence. Still, the softer accents in some of Medvedev’s statements have prompted talk that he could bring a thaw, to some degree, in Russia’s chilly relations with the West and the Kremlin’s intolerance of domestic dissent.

Police, some in riot gear, thwarted an opposition protest of the election in Moscow, grabbing dozens of people and hauling them into buses. Demonstrators chanted “Shame!” and “Down with the police state!”

At one point, police grabbed a young woman holding a bunch of red roses and picked her up off of her feet. “I haven’t done anything!” she screamed.

Opposition figure and former chess champion Garry Kasparov, who says harassment and hurdles erected by the Kremlin forced him to drop his dropped his presidential bid, led 2,000 protesters in an authorized march in St. Petersburg. “Medvedev’s appointment is illegitimate,” he said. “March 3 is the day we start fighting against an illegitimate regime.”

Medvedev’s election was assured by support from the popular Putin and the powerful Kremlin. He received more than 70 percent of the vote, the Central Election Commission said.

The election was tainted by lopsided state media coverage favoring Medvedev and accounts of pressure on voters. Across Russia, voters say they were pushed, cajoled and pressured to cast ballots as part of a Kremlin campaign to ensure a strong victory for Putin’s protege.

Communist Party leader Gennady Zyuganov, in second place with about 18 percent of the vote according to the official count, called the election a “farce” designed to keep Putin in power and accused the government of “the crude blackmail, intimidation and bribery of millions of people.”

The Russian monitoring group Golos reported hundreds of alleged violations in the campaign and the vote, including ballot-box stuffing, false voter registration, multiple ballots being cast and police intimidation. Director Liliya Shebanova said Golos monitors recorded violations including suspicious absentee ballots, voting in the name of dead citizens, and students being bused to polling places and improperly registered.