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19 Feb, 2012 15:27

‘Fair election’ drive: Motor protest jams Moscow center (VIDEO)

Moscow's opposition protesters have taken their calls for fair elections to the capital's central roadways. Hundreds of motorists brandished banners and decorated their cars with white ribbons and balloons - the color of the movement.

The campaign involved up to 100 vehicles with white protest symbols and another 50 vehicles without, the Moscow city police department says. The organizers however say that at least two thousands cars participated in the run.The cars circled the Garden Ring, one of the main transport arteries of Moscow which makes a 16-kilometre loop around the Kremlin. Organizers did not set an exact place to start the action and neither had they coordinated the run.However, the organizers’ website offered a provocative contest for the best photo of a car with protest symbols in front of the Kremlin.The police accused some of the protest participants of intentionally creating traffic disorder. “As a result, long traffic jams have formed in several sections of the Garden Ring," the police said.

Several thousand cars gathered for a similar drive organized in January.The protest comes a day after drivers supporting Russian Prime Minister, and presidential hopeful Vladimir Putin took to the streets of Moscow to back his campaign and call for stability. Around two thousand cars took part in that rally, according to the Russian Interior Ministry. However the organizers of the event put the number of vehicles at five thousand.The country saw several mass rallies after last December's Parliamentary elections, which protesters claim were rigged.

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