Russian opposition leaders are planning to hold a 10,000 strong demonstration near the Kremlin in the heart of the capital Moscow on March 5, the day after the presidential election.
Vladimir Ryzhkov and Sergei Udaltsov, two of the opposition movement's most prominent leaders, are in talks with the city authorities to get permission for a centrally-located rally, ideally near the Kremlin and the Central Election Commission building. The pair spoke after attending the State Duma during a hearing on a new election law on Tuesday.
"We have done a survey on the internet and 90 percent or even more are categorically against holding it on Bolotnaya Square or Prospekt Sakharova," Udaltsov said. "They think that on that day, a symbolic day for Russia, when the fate of Russia will be decided for six years, they have the right to go to the center, next to the Kremlin," he added.
However, after hours of talks, city hall refused to approve any of the proposed venues - Lubyanka or Manezh Square on March 5 or Novy Arbat on March 10, Udaltsov said.
At its organizing committee meeting on Thursday, the opposition will decide how to act on March 5, he said.
Russia will go to the polls for the presidential election on March 4, the first election in post-Soviet Russian history in which the president will serve a six-year term. Six candidates are contesting the election, in which Prime Minister Vladimir Putin is favorite to win but may well be forced into a second round if he gets less than 50 percent of the vote in the first.
The opposition also intends to hold a demonstration on March 10, Ryzhkov said.
Several massive demonstrations have already taken place in Moscow since December, in response to alleged election fraud in the Duma elections that month. The protests have been the largest since the break-up of the Soviet Union in 1991.
