MOSCOW: Several thousand Russians gathered in central Moscow on Saturday for a rally seen as a test of the opposition’s ability to mount a sustained challenge to President-elect Vladimir Putin.
Demonstrators carried white balloons and wore white ribbons, the symbols of protests that began over a disputed parliamentary poll on Dec. 4 and are intended now to highlight allegations of fraud in the presidential election Putin won on March 4.
Putin’s opponents hoped to attract a large crowd to maintain the momentum of the rallies, which could quickly fade following Putin’s triumph and the detention of hundreds of people during or after protests on Monday.
Early signs were that the protest would be smaller than the largest protests that have attracted tens of thousands of people over the past three months.
The mood was relaxed on a cold but sunny day on Moscow’s Novy Arbat street at a rally approved by the city authorities. Police were out in force and two helicopters hovered overhead. Protests leaders addressed the crowd from a stage bearing the slogans ‘For new elections’ and ‘These are not elections, this is not a president’. (UNI)