Several pro-Kremlin youth movements held a rally in downtown Moscow on Friday to encourage young people to vote in Russia's 2012 presidential election.
The rally under a slogan "Born in Russia, Choose Russia" was organized by the Young Russia, Locals and New People movements and gathered about 3,000 people on Moscow's Pushkin Square.
"We are telling the youth that the [presidential] election is coming, and that it is very important to vote for Russia's future," Young Russia leader Anton Demidov told RIA Novosti. "We are telling them that Russia was successful in the 2000s and we want it to be just as successful in the 2010s."
Demidov said young Russians must be taught to be active members of a civil society, and to be able to express and defend their political views.
"It is not important who the young people vote for, but it is important that they come to election polls and exercise their citizen's rights," he said.
MOSCOW, March 11 (RIA Novosti)
