Russia: 3.000 demonstrators in Moscow against the reform of retirement pensions

Three thousand or so people marched Saturday in Moscow against the unpopular project of the government to increase the age of retirement, which causes a slingshot unusual in Russia.

Parade participants on a large avenue in the centre of the Russian capital, waving placards bearing the image of members of the ruling party, United Russia, of which Prime minister Dmitry Medvedev, accompanied by slogans such as “Enemy of the people” or “Shame”.

“About 3,000 people have taken part” in the protest, announced in a press release the Russian ministry of the Interior, an estimate confirmed by a journalist of the AFP.

Authorized by the authorities, the event was organized at the call of the Russian communist Party. The opponent of the left Front Sergei Oudaltsov, sentenced to 30 days in jail for having burned portraits of Russian leaders during a previous event at the end of July, took part in the parade.

The Russian authorities are faced for several months a wave of anger at the government’s project to increase the age of retirement, which had remained unchanged for nearly 90 years in the country.

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