Moscow is bracing itself for trouble on Monday, with thousands of rival demonstrators expected to take to the streets this evening in post-election rallies, after Prime Minister Vladimir Putin was elected president in an election the opposition claim was flawed.
Two mass rallies by Putin’s supporters are scheduled for Monday. The first one which is expected to bring together as many as 20,000 people, will take place on Manezhnaya Square, the same venue that hosted Sunday’s meeting where Putin arrived as the winner of the polls.
“It will be a meeting of voters’ gratitude,” pro-Kremlin youth group, Nashi (Ours) organizers said.
The second gathering, which will be held in the form of a concert will take place Revolution Square.
Russia’s presidential elections on Sunday brought Prime Minister Vladimir Putin a landslide victory, winning him 63.71 percent of the vote after 99.5 percent of ballots were counted.
The communist leader Gennady Zyuganov received 17.19 percent, while billionaire-turned-politician Mikhail Prokhorov secured 7.88 percent of the vote.
The opposition will also gather at an authorized meeting on Pushkinskaya Square to protest against the results of the elections that were allegedly fabricated in favor of Putin. Another opposition demonstration is expected at Lubyanka Square.
Earlier, opposition activist Sergei Udaltsov, one of the main leaders of the protest movement, said that he had been summoned to a police station for “talks.” Udaltsov spent 15 days in prison earlier this year for his role in organizing demonstrations which violated rules set by the authorities.
“At around 10 pm (on Sunday) the police called me…and invited me ‘for talks’…I was told they were planning to invite [Alexei] Navalny, [Ilya] Yashin and [Boris] Nemtsov as well. I haven’t received any official summons,” Udaltsov told the news web site Gazeta.ru, adding that he would probably not respond to the police summons.
Nationalists also plan to come to the opposition meeting at the Pushkinskaya Square, the Russians nationalist movement’s head Dmitry Dyomushkin said.
Other opposition groups are using social networks to organize unsanctioned rallies, ranging from setting up tents in downtown Moscow to encircling the Kremlin.
The Moscow police, which have been put on high alert, have announced that they would close several central avenues if the crowd of protesters became too big for Pushkinskaya Square.
“The Moscow police will do everything possible to stop public order violations. Any attempts to break the law will be dealt with swiftly and the guilty will be brought to justice,” the police said in a statement.
A total of 12,000 policemen, internal army forces and volunteers will be drafted to ensure security at the rallies.