National Unity Day has been celebrated since 2005, when then-president Vladimir Putin created the holiday to celebrate the defeat of Polish invaders in 1612. It replaced an annual Soviet commemoration of the 1917 revolution.
Thousands of Russian nationalists have marked National Unity Day with a rally in Moscow demanding that immigrants be sent back to their own countries.
About 7,000 nationalists marched in the capital Friday, waving Czarist flags and chanting anti-immigrant slogans such as “Russia for Russians†and “Migrants Today, Occupiers Tomorrow.â€
The officially sanctioned rally was allowed in only one suburb far from Moscow’s center.
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