Krasnoyarsk marchers chanting, "Hey, hey, hey, we're being visited by Sasha Grey," in reference to the U.S. porn actress. +18
While scores of people marched for and against President Vladimir Putin on May Day, several found the public holiday a reason to march for no particular reason other than to have fun.
More than 4,000 people rallied in the Siberian city of Novosibirsk with signs reading, "You are here," "Will you smoke here?" and Don't look at me that way," the Sibinfo news site reported.
The mood was carnival-like, with people playing musical instruments, singing and periodically shouting out, "Happy New Year!" and "Boobs!" according to the site, which carried a live blog of what has now become an annual event.
But organizer Artyom Loskutov had to regularly urge demonstrators to remove their masks to avoid problems with the police.
A tough law on public rallies passed last year forbids demonstrators from covering their faces.
No problems were reported at the Novosibirsk rally.
Marchers in Krasnoyarsk were a little less fortunate.
The one-hour march of 50 people took place peacefully with the exception of an overly diligent police officer who asked one demonstrator dressed as Darth Vader from "Star Wars" to remove his mask, news reports said.
The Krasnoyarsk demonstrators carried banners reading, "Who wants Botox? We'll give you some" and "Want to dance? Then dance. Don't want to dance? Then walk" and chanted, "Hey, hey, hey, we're being visited by Sasha Grey."
Sasha Grey is the stage name of a former U.S. porn actress who is wildly popular in the former Soviet Union.
People chanting, "We're going, we're going!" at the Krasnoyarsk march. About 50 people took part.
Among the other signs held at the march were "We want borshch" and "Peace, labor, meow" — a play on the Soviet-era May 1 slogan "Peace, labor, May."
Similar rallies, known as "monstratsiya," a takeoff of the word "monsters," were also held in Tyumen, Vladivostok, Yaroslavl, Yekaterinburg and Omsk as well as Kiev and two other Ukrainian cities.
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