The opposition campaign "March of Millions" was held in Moscow on the Day of Russia, June 12. Dissatisfied with the new law on rallies, detentions and searches in the apartments of oppositionists, according to various estimates, thousands of people took to the streets of the city. Despite the rainy weather, the procession and the subsequent rally were rather successful and ended peacefully.
The opposition march was agreed in advance with the authorities. Dissatisfied with Putin's reforms, people with posters, flags and banners walked from Pushkin Square to Akademik Sakharov Avenue. The organizers of the procession - blogger Alexei Navalny, leader of the Left Front Sergey Udaltsov, journalist Olga Romanova, Garry Kasparov, Sergey Parkhomenko and other well-known oppositionists - urged their like-minded people to gather at Pushkinskaya Square at one in the afternoon. However, people began to catch up by 11 o’clock, despite the clouds gathering in the sky.
Nationalists and anarchists joined the liberals from the civic group Solidarity and the Left Front activist. Many carried posters in support of "Pussy Riot." At 14:30 Moscow time, a rally began on Sakharov Avenue, at which Sergey Udaltsov spoke (despite the agenda for interrogation by the Investigative Committee), Boris Nemtsov, Ilya Ponomarev, Dmitry Bykov, Mikhail Kasyanov, Gennady Gudkov and other opponents of the Putin government. Most of the speakers demanded the release of opposition participants on May 6, who were imprisoned for clashes with law enforcement officers. Oppositionists did not call for a revolution, but demanded the peaceful resignation of the government, president and new, fair elections.
After the speakers' performances, a rock concert began on the stage, but most of the participants chose to go home to take cover from heavy rain. According to the organizers, the March of Millions attracted about 120, 000 people. However, the Central Internal Affairs Directorate estimates the scale of the action is much more modest - about 18 thousand people. On the whole, the protest rally against the government was fairly peaceful, without provocations from the authorities or the radical flanks of the opposition.
Presidential spokesman Dmitry Peskov spoke positively of the protest, noting that such processions indicate the emergence of a new political culture in the country.
