MOSCOW, Jan. 21 (UPI) -- Moscow authorities rejected a plan by critics of Prime Minister Vladimir Putin to hold a march with up to 50,000 people in the city, citing security concerns.
The activists planned the march for Feb. 4, a month before presidential elections, along Garden Ring Road in downtown Moscow, RIA Novosti reported Saturday. More than 20,000 people have signed up on Facebook to participate in the march.
But Deputy Mayor Alexander Gorbenko said, "The route cannot be approved due to security concerns."
Gorbenko proposed moving the march to Feb. 5, a Sunday, at another location and reducing the number of protesters to 10,000.
Dmitry Bykov, a writer and opposition activist, told the Kommersant-FM radio station organizers of the Feb. 4 march would discuss alternative routes. But he said an unauthorized protest could proceed if negotiations with city officials fail.
Rallies protesting suspected vote fraud in favor of Putin's United Russia Party in the Dec. 4 parliamentary elections drew tens of thousands of protesters. They demanded reforms and a rerun of the elections.
Putin, who plans to run for president in the March elections, had been a target of the December protests. Critics accuse him of suppressing political opposition during his two terms as president, 2002-2008.
Meanwhile, representatives of three opposition parties urged supporters Saturday to join forces to demand honest presidential elections, ITAR-Tass reported.
The Russian Communist Party, Just Russia and the Russian Liberal Democratic Party made the demand during a government-sanctioned rally of about 1,500 people in Manezhnaya Square in downtown Moscow.
