Russian Political Movements Hold May Day Marches, Rallies in Moscow
Created: 01.05.2007 17:24 MSK (GMT +3), Updated: 17:24 MSK
MosNews
Thousands of Russians hit the streets of Moscow Tuesday as an array of political forces held marches and rallies on May Day, the Associated Press reports.
In a sign of the Kremlin’s dominance of politics and society under President Vladimir Putin, the largest gathering was apparently a march and rally in downtown Moscow led by the loyal United Russia party and the government-approved trade union organization. Organizers said some 25,000 people participated.
Thousands also turned out for a Communist Party demonstration, marching from a square adorned by a statue of Bolshevik Revolutionary leader Vladimir Lenin to one that features a bust of Karl Marx. Police put their number at more than 5,000.
Several hundred Kremlin critics and human rights activists participated in a march organized by the liberal opposition party Yabloko near the headquarters of the Federal Security Service, the main successor of the Soviet KGB.
Ultranationalists also held a separate demonstration, as did flamboyant politician Vladimir Zhirinovsky’s Liberal Democratic Party of Russia and Just Russia, a new party led by Putin supporter Sergei Mironov, the speaker of the upper parliament house.
Law enforcement authorities sent thousands of officers into the streets and mounted a large presence for the gathering, which followed harsh police crackdowns on opposition demonstrations in Moscow and St. Petersburg two weeks ago, but no violence occurred.
During the Soviet era, the government held a massive parade on Red Square every year on May Day, an international holiday celebrating workers.
Russian Political Movements Hold May Day Marches, Rallies in Moscow
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