Thousands circle Moscow’s city centre in protest at Putin

Thousands of Russians joined hands to form a human chain around Moscow city centre yesterday in protest against Vladimir Putin’s likely return as president in an election next week.

The protesters stood side-by- side around the ten mile Moscow Garden Ring Road in gently falling snow, many of them wearing the white ribbons that symbolise the biggest opposition protests since Mr Putin rose to power 12 years ago.

“There is no way that Putin can win honestly,” said Yevgeniya Chirikova, a leading opposition campaigner.

“You see how many people are out here now. If we can prove that there is falsification in the presidential election, then there will be a very strong reaction [from the people],” she said.

Mr Putin is all but certain to win the presidential election on 4 March, and return to the post he held from 2000 until 2008, after a campaign portraying him as a strong leader who oversaw an economic boom and rebuilt Russia as a powerful nation.

But the protests point to growing dissatisfaction among relatively well-off voters in big cities with a political system dominated by one man, widespread corruption and a lack of transparency.

“I don’t know that there will be any result [from the protest] but I’ve come to show the government that there are many of us and that there are many people together,” said Nikolai Chekalin, a 66-year-old scientist. “I would like transparency, an honest court and conditions for business to develop. Putin has been lucky, the price of oil has helped him.”

The organisers said they needed 34,000 people to physically complete the circle around Moscow’s historic centre. They put the number of protesters at 40,000, police at 11,000.