MOSCOW, Dec. 24 (UPI) -- More than 20,000 people packed downtown Moscow Saturday to protest alleged fraud in this month's Russian parliamentary elections, state media reported.
The government issued a permit allowing as many as 50,000 people to convene in the wake of other protests throughout the country after the Dec. 4 election gave Prime Minister Vladimir Putin's United Russia party a slim parliamentary majority, the RIA Novosti news agency said.