Moscow prepares for mass protest against Putin

Demonstration, which has licence for 50,000 attendees, will be test of Kremlin tactics against opposition movement

Moscow is bracing itself for a mass anti-Putin protest on Tuesday that will be a key test of whether a Kremlin campaign of intimidation in recent months has succeeded in cowing the country's nascent opposition movement.

Tensions have been rising in the Russian capital before the demonstration, which has a licence for 50,000 attendees, after police searched the homes of prominent activists and their families on Monday.

Opposition figureheads including the blogger Aleksei Navalny, Left Front leader Sergei Udaltsov and TV star Ksenia Sobchak were targeted by police and have also been summoned for questioning at 11am local time, meaning they are likely to miss the first hours of the... [via Guardian]