Competing mass Putin rallies face off in Moscow

Tens of thousands took to the streets of Moscow Saturday for rival rallies duelling over Russia's future, in a test of strength for the anti-Vladimir Putin movement one month before presidential polls. Bundled up in down jackets, fur coats and felt boots, the demonstrators defied freezing weather of around minus 17 degrees Celsius (1.5 Fahrenheit) as Russia's political temperature heated up ahead of the March 4 elections. As protesters from the opposition movement massed for their third rally in less than two months urging the Russian strongman to quit, Putin's supporters also filled a square in western Moscow to bursting point. Police said 138,000 turned up for the pro-Putin rally in the west of the capital but an AFP correspondent at the scene said the numbers appeared to have been exaggerated, amid allegations that people had been induced or pressured to attend. Police put the number of protesters at the anti-Putin event called through social networks at around 36,000. But the organisers of the anti-Putin rally -- its third since fraud-tainted December elections -- said some 120,000 people turned up, repeating the success of the previous demonstration despite the harsh temperatures. "When people come out in such freezing cold, even more than 100,000 people, it means they are so sick of it that they do not have the patience to bear it any longer," opposition politician Boris Nemtsov said. Putin is standing for a new term as president in the elections after his-four year stint as prime minister and his main opposition will come from the Communists. "We are not afraid of the frost. We are afraid of lies," said Mikhail Matrosov, a 51-year-old businessman. "We are for fair elections." The protesters massed in Bolotnaya Square just across the Moscow river from the Kremlin to hear speeches from activists and politicians calling on Putin to quit for the sake of the country. "Putin wants to rule forever! One, two, three: Putin leave!" cried activist Ilya Yashin as the crowd roared back its approval, while leftist activist Sergei Udaltsov tore up a portrait of the Russian strongman on stage. The leader of the liberal Yabloko party, Grigory Yavlinsky, said: "We are different but we are all of the same colour, the colours of the Russian flag!" Yavlinsky was controversially disqualified from the presidential elections on procedural grounds last week, ridding Putin of his sole liberal challenger in the race. Implying he expected Putin to win the polls but endure a hard time afterwards, Yavlinsky said: "Life does not end on March 4 or even 5. Everything is just beginning. We will never retreat." Legendary rock musician Yuri Shevchuk, a longtime supporter of the anti-Putin movement, crooned one of his best-loved ballads, "Rodina" (Motherland). Billionaire tycoon Mikhail Prokhorov, who has been registered to stand against Putin in the polls, mingled with protesters at the rally but did not give any speech. Other smaller anti-Putin rallies took place across the country, with the biggest Urals and Siberian cities of Yekaterinburg and Novosibirsk seeing thousands of people turning out despite the severe winter cold. In the west of the city, government supporters staged a rival rally at the Poklonnaya Gora War Memorial Park dubbed the "anti-Orange protest" -- a reference to Ukraine's 2004 Orange Revolution that ousted its old order and infuriated the Kremlin. "People who came here are those who are against a liberal coup," said Valery, 79, a pensioner. "I came here because I don't want chaos like in Libya." Banners brandished at the protest read "Putin, we're with you" and "No to the Orange plague." Complaints have multiplied in recent days that employees of state companies were being offered cash incentives or even being ordered to attend the pro-Putin rally. Buses that had apparently been used to transport the protestors in from across the region surrounded the protest venue. Opposition newspaper Novaya Gazeta reported that even parliament members were forced to join the pro-Putin rally. It quoted an aide to a senator, who spoke anonymously, as saying "those above have lost their (expletive) mind". A nurse from a hospital in the Moscow suburb of Zelenograd told AFP this week that colleagues were offered 3,000 rubles ($100) to attend the pro-Putin rally and 15 agreed to go. On a visit to the Chelyabinsk region in the Urals, Putin acknowledged that "administrative resources" could have been employed in mobilising supporters but this could not by itself explain the large turnout, the Interfax news agency reported. Apparently seriously, Putin also offered to personally help pay any fines the organisers of the rally in his favour could incur for a far bigger turnout than had been in their original application to the city hall.