Tens of thousands of Russians prepared Friday to hold their biggest protest yet over a contested election that has sent Moscow’s relations with Washington spiralling to a three-year low. Saturday’s rally in Moscow – sanctioned by the police after days of talks with the opposition – is expected to draw around 30,000 people to a square across the river from the Kremlin following last weekend’s legislative polls. But the opposition is also organising rallies in at least 13 other major cities in a rare outpouring of mistrust in a system put in place by Prime Minister Vladimir Putin when he first became president in 2000.
Sunday’s vote was narrowly won by Putin’s ruling party but accompanied by a flood of video footage shot by ordinary Russians and posted on the Internet appearing to show ballot stuffing and other widespread manipulation. The protests that followed have posed a surprise challenge to Putin and saw the Russian strongman on Thursday launch a lacerating attack on US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton for her expressions of concern. City authorities have allowed up to 30,000 people to gather on a square facing the Kremlin across the Moscow River after capping capacity to 300 at the original site requested by the opposition.
But some protest organisers have vowed to show up at the first location and then stage a march through central Moscow – a threat that drew an immediate warning from Russia’s interior minister. “Any attempts to stage unsanctioned events and to impede order will be thwarted by interior ministry personnel in accordance with the law,” said Interior Minister Rashid Nurgaliyev. Around 1,600 people have already been arrested in three days of protests in Moscow and Putin’s native city of Saint Petersburg – a cultural capital with a tradition of opposition thought going back to pre-Soviet times.
