120,000 people expected to take to streets in Moscow Feb 23

PanARMENIAN.Net - Some 120,000 people are expected to take to the streets in Moscow on Thursday, Feb 23, in four separate demonstrations organized by supporters of Russian prime minister and presidential candidate Vladimir Putin and his opponents in the March 4 elections, RIA Novosti reported

Some 10,000 police officers will be deployed to Moscow streets during the demonstrations, Moscow police said in a statement.

Putin supporters will march along the Frunzenskaya Embankment in central Moscow before gathering at Moscow’s Luzhniki Arena at 1 pm local time (09:00 GMT). The demonstration, which was authorized for 100,000 people, is expected to last until 2.30 pm (10:30 GMT).

Putin’s press secretary Dmitry Peskov has not ruled out that the prime minister may address his supporters with a speech during the demonstration.

Members of Putin’s United Russia party are also expected to attend the rally, which was jointly organized by Putin’s election staff and his All-Russia People’s Front movement.

Another rally, organized by TV anchor Sergei Kurginyan, will take place on Thursday at the All-Russia Exhibition Centre in north-eastern Moscow. Its participants will protest against what they call “Orange threat” facing Russia, referring to the 2004 Orange Revolution in Ukraine, one of the so-called color uprisings that rocked former Soviet republics in the 2000s.

Kurginyan followers believe that the leaders of recent “For Fair Elections” protests in Russia are foreign-backed revolutionaries, who, according to Kurginyan, “don’t need honest elections any longer and will not recognize the results of the March 4 presidential polls in any case.”

Only 7,000 people were allowed to attend the rally, while some 13,500 have signed up on social networks to join it.