Govorukhin said the march, if approved by City Hall, will take place on Tverskaya Ulitsa in central Moscow, with a rally afterwards on Manezh Square next to the Kremlin, Interfax reported.
"Taking into account the situation that developed at Poklonnaya Gora, we decided to increase the declared number of [allowed] participants to 200,000," Govorukhin said, referring to the pro-Putin rally held Saturday that police said drew around 140,000 demonstrators.
Independent estimates put the number at Poklonnaya Gora much lower, with some observers claiming there were no more than 25,000 participants.
Organizers of the Feb, 23 march will include various groups that are part of the pro-Putin All-Russia People's Front movement, said another Putin campaign official, Alexei Anisimov, Interfax reported.
After opposition groups held a massive protest in the week following the controversial State Duma elections on Dec. 4, a pro-Kremlin rally was held at Manezh Square on Dec. 12 that reportedly drew 5,000 demonstrators.
Opposition protesters had asked City Hall to approve a march route for their Feb. 4 march that would end at Manezh Square, but their proposal was refused. Their march instead traveled along Bolshaya Yakimanka and ended with a rally at Bolotnaya Ploshchad.
Reports surfaced Monday that the opposition was planning to hold a of their own Feb. 26, but the organizing committee denied the reports Tuesday in a message on their Facebook page, saying that as of yet there were no new plans for a protest.
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