Russians prepare for mass protest

Russian opposition leaders say Moscow authorities have sanctioned what they hope will be a massive rally against election fraud, after a violent police crackdown on a series of protests earlier this week.

They say the city government has allowed a rally of up to 30,000 on Saturday on a square across the river from the Kremlin.

Some of the protest organisers, however, insisted today that they will rally in a different location nearer the Kremlin.

Prime minister Vladimir Putin's United Russia party won about 50% of the vote in last Sunday's parliamentary election, barely holding on to its majority in the lower house.

Russia’s opposition parties and international monitors claim that even that result was highly inflated because of vote-rigging.