Moscow police ensured public order and security at Saturday’s protest rally in the center of the Russian capital in full, the police press service said.
Tens of thousands of protesters rallied in Moscow on Saturday to demand new parliamentary elections and liberal reforms in Russia, turning the temperature up on Prime Minister Vladimir Putin and his plans to return to the Kremlin.
Police put the number of protesters within the space authorized for the rally at about 30,000 but rally organizers and RIA Novosti correspondents on the scene estimated the turnout number at several times higher than the police figure.
Over 700 reporters covered the protests, believed to be the largest in Russia’s history in the past two decades.
Police said they only had to interfere once when rally organizers asked them to prevent nationalist organizations’ members to break through to the stage.
Protesters adopted a resolution calling for new and fair elections, open registration for all opposition parties by February 2012, the immediate release of all “political prisoners” (political activists detained during protest actions) and the annulment of the December 4 parliamentary election results they claim were rigged in favor of the ruling United Russia party.
Other demands included the resignation of Central Election Commission chief Vladimir Churov, the prosecution of all those involved in ballot stuffing and a vote against Putin, who is widely believed to be able to win the March 4 presidential elections in Russia to return to the presidential post he held in 2000-2008.
Protests took place in many Russian cities, drawing from several dozen to several thousand people. Dozens of protesters were detained across Russia. Police were generally more lenient, in some cases allowing even unauthorized protests to go ahead with no reports of police brutality.
Five people were detained by Ukrainian police in Kiev for marching with posters supporting Russian protests.
