MOSCOW, June 12 (Itar-Tass) —— Not all participants in the March of Millions chose to stay for a meeting at Sakharov Avenue in central Moscow on Tuesday, press service of the Interior Ministry said.
“The meeting in Sakharov Avenue started, and a part of people participating in the march chose to leave,” the police said. “While the columns walking along Garden Ring united about 18,000, by the beginning of the meeting the number of participants was about 15,000.”
Coordinator of Left Front Sergei Udaltsov opened the meeting and suggested “starting unlimited in time public walks and gatherings demanding liberation of our brothers.”
“We should prepare a realistic unlimited in time activity, and I suggest organising it on October 7 – you know on whose birthday /of Vladimir Putin – Itar-Tass/,” Udaltsov said. He addressed the country to “support this initiative across the entire country.”
He said the opposition was fighting not against but for: “for honest government, for free elections, for free Russia.”
“It is an exclusively peaceful and constitutional, balanced protest, and it should involve masses. We should change the constitution, ban one person to be elected for over two times and for over four years at a time,” leader of PARNAS Boris Nemtsov said. He added the role of Russian parliament should be bigger. “We should demand that after public election of parliament, the government should be formed not by usurpers, but by parliament elect.”
The State Duma’s deputy Ilya Ponomarev spoke about the importance of establishing an organisation to unite the left and the right forces, various political views. “I believe the time of slogans and calls is going away. What is there new we have to tell each other: we should be acting firmly, moving forward. We need a common plan and common leaders.”