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Bloomberg
The Russian Communist Party held a rally in central Moscow calling for honest and fair city council elections as the newly energised opposition planned to skip mass protests this weekend for the first time in five weeks.
The rally started at noon Moscow time at Sakharov Avenue, the traditional spot for demonstrations, and senior party officials, politicians and State Duma members were scheduled to take part. About 4,000 people gathered during the first hour, according to Moscow police.
This weekend marks a lull in protests over the refusal to put opposition candidates on the ballot for city council elections, which sparked the biggest wave of unrest in the capital since 2011-2012. Earlier, as many as 60,000 people attended a demonstration in central Moscow to demand the excluded politicians be allowed to run, while over 2,000 people have been detained by riot police in recent weeks for participating in unsanctioned gatherings.
Attempts to get a permit to hold an opposition demonstration were denied by city authorities, Andrei Morev, a local politician said.