The Communist Party of the Russian Federation has been cleared for a series of rallies and marches in downtown Moscow over May holidays, Moscow city Communist Party Committee head Valery Rashkin said on Wednesday.
On May 1 Communists and their supporters will march from Pushkinskaya Square along Tverskaya Street to Teatralnaya Square.
On May 9 (Victory Day) they will march from Oktyabskaya to Lubyanka Square.
The itinerary is preliminary and will need to be discussed with party members yet, Rashkin said.
Communists will also stage protests this coming Saturday throughout the country against the deployment of a NATO transit center in Ulyanovsk with an estimated turnout of up to 2 million people.
The main slogans in Moscow, however, will be: “Russia without Putin” and “For Fair Elections!”
Nationwide opposition rallies spread across Russia in early December, following the allegedly rigged parliamentary elections in which the ruling United Russia party headed by the Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin, secured a bare majority of seats in the State Duma.
The new protests are directed mainly against Putin, after his victory in March 4 presidential elections. The opposition has accused the authorities of ballot stuffing, multiple voting schemes and other violations.
