People wave the Russian flag and hold posters reading “This election is a farce!” and “Give the country choice back” during an opposition rally in Moscow, Russia, Monday, December 5th 2011. Several thousand people have protested in Moscow against Putin and his party, which won the largest share of a fraudulent parliamentary election that observers said was rigged. It was perhaps the largest opposition rally in years and ended with police detaining some of the activists. A group of several hundred then marched toward the Central Elections Commission near the Kremlin, but were apprehended stopped by rioting police and taken away in buses. Estimates of the number of people protesters Monday night ranged from 5,000 to 10,000. They chanted “Russia without Putin”. |
