Rossiya Molodaya (Young Russia), a radical pro-Kremlin and anti-opposition youth group, staged a protest wearing Mickey Mouse outfits outside a building where a coalition of democratic forces will hold a congress later on Monday.
Several dozen young people stood outside a hotel complex in eastern Moscow holding nationalist flags and handing out leaflets saying that the coalition For Russia without Arbitrariness and Corruption was stage-managed from abroad.
In mid-September, the leaders of four Russian opposition organizations - Boris Nemtsov, Vladimir Ryzhkov, Vladimir Milov and Mikhail Kasyanov - declared the creation of a coalition of democratic forces.
The congress is to establish a Party of People's Freedom, adopt a statute and program, elect the party leadership, and define the procedure for the nomination of a consensus candidate in the 2012 presidential elections.
Over 160 delegates from 50 regions of the country are expected to attend.
MOSCOW, December 13 (RIA Novosti)