I doubt that Putin is very happy about this:
Thousands protest Crimea action in Moscow
BY AFP | MARCH 15, 2014 , 3 : 36 PM GST
Kiev: Thousands of people rallied in central Moscow on Saturday in protest at Russia's intervention in Ukraine, a day before the Crimean peninsula is expected to vote on switching to Kremlin rule.
Waving Ukrainian flags and shouting slogans heard during the Maidan protests in Kiev, the demonstrators urged Russian President Vladimir Putin to pull troops back.
Marchers carried placards reading "Putin, get out of Ukraine" and others comparing Russia's move on Crimea with the Nazi annexation of the Sudetenland as Europe rushed headlong into World War II.
University professor Yelena Orlova, 47, whose sign read "Ukraine is a sovereign state", said she did not expect the rally would change her government's position, but believed it was her duty to speak out.
http://www.timesofoman.com/...
Activists estimate the number to be around 50k, while police are saying that there are only a few thousand. It seems to be pretty obvious that there are tens of thousands in the streets, though.
When one considers that anti-govt. protesters can be arrested without rhyme or reason in Russia, that virtually no freedom of the press exists there anymore, and that their media landscape pretty much is the equivalent of every t.v. channel being their own version of Fox News, this definitely is a noteworthy development.
I doubt it will dissuade Putin from snatching Crimea anymore than the demonstrations against the Iraq War stopped the Bush/Cheney Cabal from invading Iraq, but I find it heartening to see these brave Russians hit the streets, showing the world that Russians are not necessarily as supportive of Putin's neo-Tzarist aggression as the Kremlin would like us to believe.
What is especially noteworthy is that this demonstration is larger than the govt.-organized pro-Putin demonstration.
I wonder if the Russian Media will be reporting about this? Paging Abby Martin...
11:28 AM PT: There's a really good and extensive sets of photos from the peace march in Moscow on Facebook. It's quite obvious that the Moscow Police's claim of merely 3k protesters is absolute B.S.:
https://www.facebook.com/...