"The pro-Western liberals, hard nationalists, gay rights advocates and other opponents of the Kremlin gathered in the center of Moscow on Saturday, seeking to revive the protest movement against President Vladimir Putin, which had a broad base, but was suppressed five years ago with the help of mass arrests and severe prison sentences. Andrew Higgins in The New York Times. - Demonstrators chanted the only demand that unites their disparate ideologies: "Russia without Putin!".

"Waving Russian flags and black and yellow-and-white standards of the Russian Empire, thousands of protesters from all over the political spectrum conducted a noisy but complacent demonstration in honor of the fifth anniversary of the tough police crackdown that ended months of protests against Putin in 2011-2012," reads the article.

"40-year-old Navalny, the most charismatic opposition figure in Russia, did not attend the Saturday demonstration, which was organized by an older generation of Kremlin critics, such as Lev Ponomarev, a human rights activist back in the Soviet era," points out Higgins.

"The Saturday protest, like the previous one, does not pose a serious threat to Putin, who has a high level of support, according to polls. However, discontent signals a possible threat, as the Kremlin prepares for the presidential elections scheduled for March next year, and seeks to keep the country in a state of political slumber. Putin has not yet announced that he will participate in the elections, but few doubt that he will do it, "reads the article.