The pro-Presidential United Russia party has held a rally in central Moscow. This follows the President's announcement that he will head the party's list of candidates in December's parliamentary elections.

Several thousand people have taken part in the rally. The event was arranged by a number of pro-Kremlin organisations in support of the United Russia party. The party controls two-thirds of the seats in the Lower Chamber of the Russian parliament (the Duma) and hopes to get at least 50% of seats in the upcoming elections.

Those who have gathered today say that their main goal is to ensure the continuity of the current political policies of President Putin. The President is a personal hero to many of these young people.

Not earlier than yesterday, the party announced its candidates list and many of them are young. Some of them are present at the rally. Under Russian law anyone who is over 21 can run for parliament.

More and more young people are running for parliament.

Youth organisations were instrumental in bringing about regime changes in some countries of the former Soviet Union like Georgia and Ukraine.

In recent years youth groups have become increasingly involved in Russian politics. They have held a number of rallies some of which have attracted up to 80,000 people.