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Alexander Zemlianichenko
/ AP
Communists and their supporters rallying under
the watchful eyes of security guards near the Bolshoi Theater on Saturday. |
More than 1 million people gathered across the country for May Day rallies,
while many others enjoyed the start of a four-day holiday.
In Moscow, various demonstrations and marches competed for space and
the attention of the 44,000 estimated participants Saturday.
Several thousand Communist Party supporters waving red flags and carrying
portraits of Lenin voiced the traditional May Day calls for fair wages,
pensions and social guarantees.
They also took the chance to speak out against the war in Iraq.
"Today it is important to protest against the war unleashed by
America and NATO in Iraq," and for "peace and friendship on
earth, and social guarantees," Communist leader Gennady Zyuganov
said.
Meanwhile, members of several pro-democracy parties and human rights
movements gathered at a memorial to victims of Soviet repression and spoke
against what they see as a police state in the making.
With many of Moscow's Soviet-era satellites joining the European Union
on Saturday, the Yabloko leader Grigory
Yavlinsky stressed that Russia's future also lies in integration with
Europe.
"Many former Soviet citizens became a part of Europe. It is also
our way into the future. We will always be ourselves but ... the values
of freedom, democracy and human rights -- these are our common values,"
Yavlinsky said.
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Ivan Sekretarev
/ AP
Police standing next to a huge poster of Putin at
a Moving Together demonstration. |
The Federation of Independent Trade Unions, which was joined by the
pro-Kremlin United Russia party, marched under the slogan "Good wages
are a way toward overcoming poverty."
Trade union leader Mikhail Shmakov complained that the minimum wage
was "four times lower than the cost of the consumer goods basket,"
and wage arrears have become "chronic," Itar-Tass reported.
Meanwhile, the pro-presidential youth party Moving Together wheeled
a four-meter-high portrait of President Vladimir Putin at the head of
their march.
The Interior Ministry reported that more than 1.4 million people participated
in May Day rallies in about 950 cities.
In Moscow, which has been rocked by several suicide bombings in the
past year, some 4,000 police and soldiers were charged with keeping order.
Elsewhere in the former Soviet Union, hundreds of holiday-makers swapped
the conventional May Day slogans for a sing-along led by key opposition
leader Viktor Yushchenko in Ukraine.
A disc jockey lured people to a microphone set up on Independence Square
in central Kiev, as holiday-makers in festive clothes, clutching orange
balloons with the words "Yes, Yushchenko!" on them, lined up
for a chance to sing.
"We want to sing, we are tired of political rallies," said
Vadym Shkavro, 33, lining up with his 2-year-old daughter Lena in his
arms.
Nearby, a young couple posed in the sunshine for a street painter.
About 20,000 Ukrainians took part in Communist- and Socialist-organized
rallies in Kiev, and more than 400 rallies were held around the country.
In neighboring Moldova, President Vladimir Voronin reduced the price
of a loaf of bread by 5 percent to 2.85 lei (23 cents) for the day as
a May Day gesture.
Without explaining how it would happen, Voronin also said he would raise
the average monthly salary, which currently stands at about 850 lei ($70),
to 1,215 lei ($100) by the end of the year.
See also:
the original at
www.themoscowtimes.com
Freedom of
Assembly
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