Russia Witnesses Biggest Rally Against Putin

Thousands of Russians were protesting on Saturday over the disputed parliamentary polls on December 4 which gave a narrow majority to Putin's United Russia.

The demonstrations, dubbed as "For Fair Elections," were happening throughout the country.

Authorities had given permissions to hold the protests in Revolution Square, near Kremlin, just for 300 people. Later permissions were given for gatherings of up to 30,000 people in specific locations, according to media reports.

Protestors, including communists, nationalists and liberals gathered in Revolution Square and started walking to Bolotnaya Square, the BBC reported. Several smaller rallies were also happening in many other cities across Russia.

There were allegations of widespread poll rigging and election fraud during the last week elections to Duma which saw the United Russia entering the lower house with a thin majority. Though the United Russia is the biggest party, its vote share fell from 64 percent to 49 percent in the just concluded election.

"The reports of vote-rigging were of deep concern, and that the elections should be rerun if they were confirmed," the BBC reported presidential Council for Human Rights as saying.

The protests are viewed internationally as a test of Putin's patience to bear with peaceful demonstrations and people's right to register dissent about government policies. Russians are worried about the economic stagnation, widening gap between rich and poor and wide spread corruption at all levels of authority.

The present demonstrations draw more significance as Putin plans to come back to presidency in March 2012. Earlier, Putin had accused involvement of foreign hands in creating unrest in Russia and accused the United States of fueling protests in the country.