About 10,000 rallied at the Manezh Square by the Kremlin walls to hail Prime Minister Vladimir Putin’s victory at the presidential polls, police said.

Speakers at the pro-Putin event, which was followed by a concert, included sports and showbiz celebrities, who congratulated Putin with his victory while denouncing the opposition’s claims that campaigning was unfair and the vote was rigged.

“The forces of good have won, Vladimir Putin united everyone,” second-tier movie artist Sergei Gerasimov said, to moderate cheers from the crowd.

Rallies in support of Putin took place in cities across the country, the biggest of them in Lipetsk in central Russia, where some 9,000 gathered, local police said.