Pre-electoral street actions held in Moscow (photo)

The demonstration "For Fair Elections" started at about 2 p.m. Moscow time in the Bolotnaya Square. According to the police's estimation, the opposition rally which was held before the demonstration gathered nearly 23 thousand people, informs "Moscow's Echo". People in the crowd chanted anti-governmental slogans and sang Victor Tsoys song "We Want Changes". The number of the demonstration's participants made about 34 thousand people, RIA Novosti informs.

Famous politicians, journalists, culture activists held speeches at the demonstration. The participants chanted "Putin for discharge!" and "Freedom for political prisoners!" There were urges to organize control over the process of voting at the Russian presidential election on March 4, and to "catch the rascals" if they dare to fabricate the results.

The demonstrants were also urged to sign the resolution in support of the opposition candidate Grigori Yavlinsky, who was denied in registration by the CEC of Russia. The politician stated in his speech that "everything will just start for us on March 4", informs ВВС.

The demonstration ended at about 3 p.m. Moscow time.

Simultaneously, a demonstration in support of Vladimir Putin, the current PM and presidential contender at the April 4 election, took place at the Poklonnaya Mountain. The police have an intention to fine the organizers of that demonstration as they exceeded the applied number of participants - they announced 15 thousand people, while there had been 125-128 thousand, according to the information provided by the Ministry of Internal Affairs.

Photo: twitter, ridus.ru