Some 40,000 people took part in sanctioned rallies in Siberian cities on Monday in support of Prime Minister Vladimir Putin, who won the Russian presidential election on March 4.
With 99.5 percent of the ballots counted, Putin gained 63.71 percent, or 44.9 million votes, securing the victory in the first round to take the post of the president for the next six years.
The largest rally with up to 7,000 people, including students, pensioners, culture activists and many others, took place in the Siberian city of Barnaul, according to the Altai Region’s Interior Ministry.
Some 6,000 rallied in Siberia’s Kemerovo, known as a city of miners. The festive rallies also gathered some 5,000 people in Tomsk, 3,000 in Irkutsk, 2,000 in each city of Chita and Gorno-Altaisk and lesser rallies were held in other Siberian cities.
Police reported no incidents or other violations during the rallies.
Thousands gathered on Sunday night for a rally outside the Kremlin in downtown Moscow and were rewarded with an emotional address from the president-elect himself. But the Russian capital is bracing for mass opposition rallies on Monday night.
