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Opposition march coming to end in downtown Moscow

Organizers of the action had planned to draw up to 20,000 participants, but police said that by the beginning of the action, there had been about 4,500 people

Photo ITAR-TASS

Photo ITAR-TASS

MOSCOW, October 27 (Itar-Tass) - An opposition march in support of political prisoners in Russia is coming to an end, approaching its final destination, Academician Sakharov Avenue in the centre of Moscow. Most of participants are heading for the nearest metro station, some are still in Sakharov Avenue. The situation is calm, an Itar-Tass correspondent reports from the site.

Oppositionists, including the figureheads like the blogger and businessman Alexei Navalny strolled from Pushkin Square, which was their point of assembly, down the Strastnoi, Petrovsky, Rozhdestvensky, and Sretensky Boulevards towards the crossing of Turgenev Square and Academician Sakharov Avenue.

The oppositionists carried the photographs for former oil industry tycoon Mikhail Khodorvkosky, the activist of the highly controversial Pussy Riot grouping, Maria Alyokhina, and the people featured in the criminal case of the May 6, 2012, disturbances on Bolotnaya Square.

Supporters of the former mayor of the Volga city of Yaroslavl, Yevgeny Urlashov, formed a separate column.

Members of the Solidarity movement, the rightwing RPR-Parnas party, and the liberal rightwing Yabloko party also joined the march.

About 3,000 policemen and voluntary police assistants were engaged to control law and order. They were assisted by a police helicopter in the air.

Organizers of the action had planned to draw up to 20,000 participants, but police said that by the beginning of the action, there had been about 4,500 people. However, participants in the action said the police figures were underestimated.

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