Activists shivered in the rain at a solemn commemoration on Sunday marking the first anniversary of journalist Anna Politkovskaya's slaying while across town, some 10,000 pro-Kremlin youth thronged a Moscow embankment to congratulate Russian President Vladimir Putin on his 55th birthday.
Members of the youth group Nashi -- wearing T-shirts emblazoned with Putin's portrait -- chanted "Happy Birthday!" and carried signs bearing slogans such as "Putin is our everything!" and "Putin is our future!" in a show eerily reminiscent of Soviet-era parades.
The celebrations come as Russia prepares for parliamentary elections in which Putin would top the list of the main pro-Kremlin party -- a maneuver that could pave way for his return as prime minister after his second and final presidential term ends next spring.
The show of support for Putin took place as about 1,000 opposition activists paid tribute to Politkovskaya, a Kremlin critic who won international acclaim for her reporting about wartime abuses in Chechnya and whose contract-style killing fueled Western concerns about Russia's backsliding on democracy.
"Politkovskaya's murder has shown that our country is in big trouble," Mikhail Kasyanov, Russia's former premier-turned-opposition leader, said on Sunday. "We still hope that people will realize what's going on in the country and come together."
Putin dismissed such concerns in the days after her death, saying Politkovskaya wielded little influence with her reports and that her killing hurt the Russian government much more than her writing.
In August, Russia's chief prosecutor announced 10 suspects had been arrested. He said her murder had been ordered by someone outside the country to discredit Putin and to destabilize Russia, echoing officials' earlier claims.
"I'm afraid that Politkovskaya's murder will never be solved," said Svetlana Gannushkina, head of the non-governmental Civic Assistance Committee.
The Kremlin issued no statement on Sunday related to Politkovskaya's death.
Police on Saturday detained several foreign activists trying to attend a conference commemorating Politkovskaya in the Volga River city of Nizhny Novgorod. They were released after being fined for allegedly violating registration rules, Gannushkina said.
"We are living in a country that isn't free," activist Alexei Permogorov said at the Moscow rally. "And Politkovskaya was fighting for freedom."
But Putin has remained widely popular, thanks to Russia's oil-driven economic boom and his efforts to revive Soviet-era international clout, with some signs of Putin idolatry harking back to Soviet times.
Putin said he would top the ticket of the main pro-Kremlin United Russia party in the Dec. 2 parliamentary elections -- a move that would likely help it further expand an already sweeping majority in the lower house.
On Sunday, youths marched along the Moscow River chanting "12.2.2007 -- Putin stay with us forever!"
At the Kremlin, Putin hosted a reception for senior Cabinet officials, the top military and security brass and families of the officers who have died in line of duty.
Speaking to the guests, he paid tribute to Russian troops in Chechnya.
"The main factor that allowed us to change the situation was the courage of our officers and heroism of rank-and-file soldiers," he said.
But Putin's former economic adviser Andrei Illarionov, who lost his job in late 2005, warned earlier in the week that Putin was building a regime of absolute power. He said Putin's regime could be compared to that of Soviet dictator Josef Stalin or Russian czar Ivan the Terrible.
"We are facing a hidden turning point: giving a legal frame to an absolute power which won't have any restrictions whatsoever," he told reporters.
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