Pro-Putin rally lambasts ‘Orange Trash’.

Ria Novosti - Speakers at the pro-government rally in Moscow on Saturday lambasted the opposition, which held a parallel protest event elsewhere in the city, for plotting a revolution in the interests of Western powers.
“We say no to the destruction of Russia. We say no to Orange arrogance. We say no to the American government…let’s take out the Orange trash,” political analyst Sergei Kurginyan said at the rally by Moscow’s Poklonnaya Gora memorial, which he co-organized.

Police said between 90,000 and to 160,000 attended the event in support of Prime Minister and presidential candidate Vladimir Putin, compared to 35,000 at the opposition rally on Bolotnaya Ploshchad, whose organizers estimated attendance at 100,000.
Speakers at Poklonnaya Gora said their opponents intend to overthrow Putin through public protests, like during Ukraine’s “Orange revolution” in 2004. They also insist protesters at Bolotnaya Ploshchad are acting in the interest of the United States, whose ambassador to Moscow, Michael McFaul, met with rally organizers in January.
Participants of the two rallies “have nothing to discuss with each other,” political analyst Nikolai Starikov said at the rally.
Writer Eduard Bagirov, a member of Putin’s campaign staff, denounced participants of the rival rally as “good-for-nothing slackers” and told the attendants that Putin passed his greetings.
Putin and other senior officials also warned about a foreign influence in Russian protests and cautioned against a possible revolution, though also conceded the protests were peaceful and mostly driven by grassroots activism.
The rally lasted slightly over an hour and wrapped up shortly after 2 p.m. without incidents. Police said the organizers would be fined for exceeding the officially sanctioned attendance limit of 15,000.
Media and bloggers reported many of those who came to Poklonnaya Gora were state employees forced to attend but organizers and authorities denied the accusations.