Protests over alleged mass electoral fraud at the December 4 parliamentary elections continued in Moscow on Saturday, as more than a thousand people attended a rally near the Kremlin.
Up to 1,500 people gathered on Bolotnaya Square on Saturday, police said.
Pro-democracy liberals, gay activists and environment campaigners turned out together to chant slogans against Prime Minister Vladimir Putin’s ruling United Russia party, a RIA Novosti correspondent reported.
On December 10, the square - on an island just south of the Kremlin - saw Moscow’s biggest anti-government rally since the fall of the Soviet Union as tens of thousands gathered there to accuse United Russia of stealing their votes and demand a re-run.
The December 4 elections were marred by widespread allegations of fraud in favor of United Russia, with dozens of video clips appearing to show ballot-stuffing uploaded onto the Internet.
Saturday’s sanctioned rally was organized by the pro-democracy Yabloko party. Yabloko, led by its first leader and co-founder, Grigory Yavlinsky, failed to make the State Duma’s 5-percent threshold.
Smaller rallies took place in other cities, including Russia’s westernmost enclave of Kaliningrad and the Siberian city of Irkutsk, where more than 500 people braved temperatures of minus 20C.
A new For Fair Elections rally has been called for December 24. More than 25,000 people have signed up to a Facebook page announcing the rally.
