A rare anti-Vladimir Putin rally has been held in central Moscow

 
 
 
 
Rare anti-Putin rally held in Moscow
A rare anti-Vladimir Putin rally has been held in central  Moscow, 
demanding the Russian prime minister's resignation amid signs he is  planning to 
take back his old job as president. 

Up to 500 protesters from left wing and liberal anti-Kremlin opposition  
groups gathered on Moscow's Pushkin Square to call for Vladimir Putin's 
removal,  kicking off what they said was the start of a campaign to oust him.
 
"Our task is to free Russia from this awful regime," Garry Kasparov, a 
former  world chess champion turned opposition leader, told the crowd. "Putin is 
 Russia's disgrace." 
 

The protesters, who began an online petition to  remove Mr Putin earlier 
this year, said they were targeting him because he was  the key figure in a 
political system that worked "only in the interests of a  small group of 
officials and oligarchs and had led the country to a dead end." 

 
Mr Kasparov said corruption had flourished and freedom of expression shrunk 
 since Mr Putin first took control of Russia's political landscape in 2000. 
 Sporadic chants of "Down with Putin" and "Putin is Russia's Disgrace" rang 
out  across the historic square as riot police looked on.  
Such rallies are rarely allowed and often broken up by force. But 
Saturday's  protest passed off peacefully and was authorised amid tentative signs 
that the  Kremlin is using the arrival of a new mayor of Moscow to soften its 
stance on  protests.  
Speakers complained of how elections are always rigged. "Nobody elects 
them,"  
Ilya Yashin, an opposition leader, said of the country's top leadership.  
"They appoint themselves. Putin appointed (Dmitry) Medvedev as president and  
Medvedev appointed Putin as prime minister?"  
The rally comes amid growing speculation that Mr Putin will take back his 
old  job as president in 2012 though he has been careful not to be drawn on 
the  subject.