President Boris Yeltsin said Thursday that the government would not intervene in the crisis surrounding the scandal-ridden MMM investment company, whose president has been detained on suspicion of tax evasion.


"The government had absolutely nothing to do with it, it gave no guarantees and will not interfere at all," Yeltsin said of the collapse of MMM's reputed pyramid scheme. "It is a matter for the courts."


Speaking to reporters before leaving Moscow for a boat trip down the Volga, the president warned Russians to be wary of schemes offering high rates of return.


Russia's leaders have sought to stay above the fray resulting after MMM stopped honoring its stocks and police and tax authorities arrested the company's president, Sergei Mavrodi.


Riot police dispersed a crowd of 1,000 supporters demanding Mavrodi's release Thursday outside Moscow police headquarters, where the embattled magnate is being held.


Demonstrators shouting "Free Mavrodi" and "Sergei, the people are with you," whistled as a line of two-hundred militia and OMON riot troops, their arms linked, advanced outside the police building on Ulitsa Petrovka.


Anger briefly spilled over when demonstrators refused to move. One woman shouting at the police, "Shoot me," while others chanted "Shame, OMON" and "This is only the beginning."


After a few minutes of struggle, the protestors, whose organizers had not been granted permission to demonstrate, grudgingly moved away from the building and across the street, causing traffic jams as the evening rush hour began.


Many of the demonstrators were well-wishers bringing flowers to Mavrodi on his birthday and shareholders who lost their savings in the collapse in MMM shares prices.


The demonstration was one of several events planned by the MMM Shareholders Union, a movement formed ten days ago to secure the release of Mavrodi. Rallies are planned every day this week.


"We want Mavrodi freed so he can sort out the affairs of MMM," said Viktor Vasiliadi, the union's chairman.


Earlier at police headquarters, Konstantin Kalachyov, general secretary of the Beer Lovers' Party, delivered beer and croutons for Mavrodi in recognition of "what he has done to create a new market mentality among the public."