Dozens of protesters demanding new parliamentary elections and genuine political reform were detained across Russia on Saturday.
Protests took place in many Russian cities, drawing from several dozen to several thousand people.
Ten activists from The Other Russia opposition group were detained in St. Petersburg, Russia’s second largest city, 22 protesters were held in Nizhny Novgorod, in central Russia and about 20 were detained in the Siberian city of Barnaul.
Police were generally more lenient, in some cases allowing even unauthorized protests to go ahead with no reports of police brutality.
Protesters at a massive rally in central Moscow adopted a resolution calling for new and fair elections and the registration for all opposition parties by February 2012.
Other demands include the immediate release of all “political prisoners,” referring to political activists detained during protest actions, the annulment of the December 4 parliamentary election results, which they claim were rigged in favor of the ruling United Russia party, the resignation of Central Electoral Commission chief Vladimir Churov, the prosecution of all those involved in ballot stuffing and a vote against presidential hopeful Vladimir Putin next March.
All opposition parties, not only the so-called ‘establishment opposition’, must be registered and allowed to run to ensure genuinely free and fair elections, the resolution said.
Legislation easing party registration rules should be adopted no later than next February, according to protester demands.
Police put the number of protesters within the area authorized for the rally at 29,000 but a far larger crowd was massed behind a long line of metal detectors set up on the street as would-be participants were screened through them one by one. Rally organizers and RIA Novosti correspondents on the scene estimated the turnout number at several times higher than the police figure.
