Nearly 50,000 opposition supporters rallied and dozens were arrested in
Moscow on Saturday at one of the largest authorised
protests since President Vladimir Putin's return to the
Kremlin in 2012.
Demonstrators crowded the central Prospekt Andreya Sakharova street, where city authorities deployed a massive
police presence, including officers in riot gear, after giving permission for the rally to go ahead.
The White Counter, an NGO that tracks participants in rallies, counted 49,900 people, while Moscow police gave a much lower attendance figure of 20,000.