Moscow police prevent violence during opposition march
MOSCOW. Sept 21 (Interfax) - Police were able to prevent clashes during an anti-war procession by Russian opposition groups in central Moscow on Sunday.
Several dozen people with flags of the self-declared Donetsk People's Republic and Luhansk People's Republic gathered behind barricades installed by the police near the Trubnaya metro station along the route of the procession and were yelling at the marchers, an Interfax correspondent reported.
Police stopped the anti-march protesters from approaching the marchers and the conflict went no further than verbal wrangles.
The city police authority said the procession, which moved from Pushkinskaya Square to Academician Sakharov Avenue, brought together a little fewer than 5,000 people, but Yabloko party leader Sergei Mitrokhin, in talking to reporters, put the turnout at nearly 50,000.
An Interfax reporter said there were members of Yabloko, Solidarity, Republican Party of Russia Party-People's Freedom Party (RPR-PARNAS), and the December 5 party among the marchers.
Some of the marchers carried banners with the names and pictures of people killed in fighting in eastern Ukraine, others carried Ukrainian and Russian flags, and still others had blue and yellow balloons or wreaths in their hands. Some were chanting, "No to war!"
Members of the Moscow city government and senior police officials, including city police chief Anatoly Yakunin, were watching the procession.