About 2,000 anti-Kremlin protesters rallied Saturday on Bolotnaya Ploshchad demanding fair elections and a change in Prime Minister Vladimir Putin's government.
Saturday's demonstration was called by the fledgling People's Freedom Party, an unregistered political party created last year by opposition activists including former Deputy Prime Minister Boris Nemtsov.
Under cloudy skies, the demonstrators yelled "Russia Without Putin!" while holding aloft anti-government flags and banners.
The pro-Kremlin Nashi youth group held a significantly larger rally across town calling for an end to state corruption. Thousands of activists blocked off Prospekt Sakharova waving red-and-white banners and calling for greater supervision of civil servants. Nashi said 50,000 activists attended from 20 cities, RIA-Novosti reported.
(AP, MT)
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