The second mass protest action against alleged election fraud in Russia gathered less people than the first on Monday, Dec 5 evening. Some 1.5 thousand activists came to Triumfalnaya square to express anger and disagreement with the results of the weekend's parliamentary elections, in which Vladimir Putin's United Russia party received about 49% of vote (238 seats of 450 in the lower chamber).
"The police have detained 569 people who have been charged with conducting an unauthorized rally," ITAR-TASS said, citing a police source.
Twitter users have started a joke that the opposition was DDoS attacking the police, as the police departments could not file all the detained. The majority of the detained opposition activists were beaten by police.
Hundreds of pro-Putin youths also went to Triumfalnaya square, however only a few of them were detained.
The next opposition protest is planned for Saturday, December 11, Gazeta.ru reported.
