'Fair elections' protesters join Communists for Moscow rally

Thousands of opposition activists have marched through Central Moscow in a rally organized by Russia's Communist Party.

­The rally brought together more than 4,000 supporters of the Communists, as well as around 500 nationalists and members of the Left Front movement.

Anti-government rallies in Moscow are going on for the fourth day in a row. They took off on Sunday, when thousands of people hit the streets in the so-called March of Millions approved by Moscow’s authorities. The March, however, went out of control and ended up in violence after several dozen protesters, including opposition leaders, broke away from the crowd to stage a sit-in on a main boulevard.

People continued to protest on May 7, the day Vladimir Putin officially became President of Russia for the third time. Monday night, hundreds of activists gathered in Central Moscow for what was called the “popular promenade” – giving start to “a new form of peaceful demonstration.”

The police, however, considered the demonstration illegal: over 200 arrests have been already made. Among the detained are opposition movement leaders Navalny and Sergey Udaltsov – both of whom will spend 15 days in prison.

Demonstrators maintain that they are not breaking any laws, and that many of them were detained only for singing wartime songs.