RIA Novosti’s International News Service will cover Thursday’s march and a rally by supporters of Prime Minister Vladimir Putin and smaller rallies of two other presidential candidates, Communist Gennady Zyuganov and Liberal Democrat Vladimir Zhirinovsky, in Moscow in English, Chinese, German, French, Spanish, Arabic and Persian languages. The coverage of these events will include video reports in these languages from the sites of the march and rallies.
English-language coverage on Thursday will include breaking news, a general news story updated periodically throughout the day, an analysis (shortly after the demonstration concludes), and many details from the venues.
RIA Novosti’s English-language en.rian.ru and Russian-language RIA.ru websites will start online reporting from the site of the march and the rally of Putin supporters at 11:30 a.m. local time (07:30 GMT). The rallies and the march were authorized by the Moscow City Hall.
City Hall allowed for 40,000 people to participate in the march and for 100,000 people to attend the rally in support of Putin. Prime Minister Putin seeks to return to the Kremlin for a third, non-consecutive term in the presidential poll on March 4. This is the second massive street event in his support after tens of thousands of Muscovites staged three protest rallies following December parliamentary elections marred by allegations of fraud in favor of Putin’s United Russia party.
