Moscow Marches Despite Government Crackdown

RUSSIA -- June 12, 2012 at 12:31 PM EDT

Moscow Marches Despite Government Crackdown

Nationalists carry a huge flag of the Russian Empire as they take part in anti-Putin rally Tuesday in Moscow. Tens of thousands of protesters chanting 'Russia will be free' rallied against Putin's third term despite a police crackdown on their leaders a day earlier. Photo by Andrey Smirnov/AFP/GettyImages

Tens of thousands of Moscovites took to the streets Tuesday in defiance of the Kremlin's attempts to crack down on the opposition movement with stringent new laws and exorbitant fines. Protest leaders say the crowd was 120,000-strong, while police estimates were closer to 20,000.

On Tuesday's NewsHour broadcast, Margaret Warner and guests will discuss the rally and efforts to tamp down opposition as Putin begins his third term leading the country.

In February, Margaret covered Russia's elections from Moscow:

Beginning October 24, 2012, PBS NewsHour will allow open commenting for all registered users. We hope that the elimination of our moderation process will enable a more organic discussion amongst you, our audience. However, if a commenter violates our terms of use or abuses the commenting forum, their comment will be removed. We reserve the right to remove posts that do not follow these basic guidelines: comments must be relevant to the topic of the post; may not include profanity, personal attacks or hate speech; may not promote a business or raise money; may not be spam. Anything you post should be your own work. The PBS NewsHour reserves the right to read on the air and/or publish on its website or in any medium now known or unknown the comments or emails that we receive. By submitting comments, you agree to the PBS Terms of Use and Privacy Policy, which include more details.