In an apparent effort to prevent a possible orange revolution after the Russian presidential elections, Moscow City Hall authorized on Monday a rally in support of Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin, scheduled for the day of the presidential polls and after it, on March 5, opposition groups claim the request was filed illegally.
“Early on February 20, members of pro-Kremlin organizations were the first to file notifications to the Moscow City Hall, authorizing mass rallies on March 4 and 5,” a spokesman for the Unified Actions Staff that unites several pro-Kremlin youth groups, Mikhail Dukhovich, said.
Opposition activists were also planning to stage rallies on Lubyanskaya Square, which has already been taken by pro-Putin groups on the same day. They claim that Putin supporters were secretly allowed to enter the City Hall through the back door so they could be the first to file the request.
Sergei Udaltsov, the leader of the opposition Left Front movement said that the authorization note that the pro-Kremlin rally received, which was placed on the internet, shows it was authorized at 8.41 a.m., when the main entrance to the City Hall was closed.
“It’s clear that this is absolutely illegal, fraudulent,” Udaltsov said.
The Kremlin is trying to prevent a so-called ‘orange revolution’ in Russia, similar to the one that was held in Ukraine in 2004, when thousands of Ukrainians set up tents on the central Maidan Square protesting against rigged presidential elections, a political analyst Stanislav Belkovsky told RIA Novosti.
"Russian authorities are afraid of crowds of people gathering close to the main Moscow buildings – the Kremlin and the Federal Security Service (FSB) because if ten thousands of people attempt to enter the Kremlin, no one will be able to stop them,” Belkovsky said, adding that the post-election protests are inevitable if Putin secures no less than 60 percent of the votes.
The most active people will come to the streets, but they will have to find a venue for protests as long as the main squares will be occupied by Putin's supporters, the analyst added.
Putin, who served two terms as president between 2000 and 2008, remains Russia's most popular politician but analysts have said rising discontent among middle-class urbanities could see him forced into a potentially damaging runoff.
