News

Many participants in the rallies, dubbed the "Day of Wrath" by the opposition, demanded the resignation of Prime Minister Vladimir Putin. About 1000 people rallied in St. Petersburg holding placards "Putin''s team must resign!"

"Nothing will change until Putin stays at the helm," Olga Kurnosova of the United Civil Front, an umbrella group uniting several opposition parties and movements, said at St. Petersburg''s rally. "We don''t want him to continue ruling."

Putin moved into the prime minister''s seat in 2008 after eight years as president but retains much of his power. The opposition has accused him of rolling back many of the democratic achievements of the 1990s.

Authorisation

Police didn''t intervene with the St. Petersburg protest, but they barred protesters from holding a rally in downtown Moscow. According city police spokesman, Viktor Biryukov, 70 people had been detained for taking part in the protest which hasn''t been authorized by authorities.

Opposition activists have insisted they need no special permission from authorities to hold rallies because the Russian constitutions guarantees the right of assembly.

The authorities allowed an earlier protest of about 1000 who rallied in another section of the Russian capital to demand a reform of the Russian traffic police, which has been widely criticized for corruption and inefficiency.