Thousands, donning white ribbons, came to protest on the streets of Russia. For many, Saturday's protests against recent election results that kept Vlamidir Putin's United Russia party in power, were their first protest.

Of the 20,000 gathered in Moscow, most are from the nation's educated middle-class who are now openly calling for Putin to go.

This weekend's protests mark the return of Russian street politics dormant since the collapse of the Soviet Union, but these protests are being carefully managed by the over 50,000 police and Interior Ministry troops stationed on the ground.

Al Jazeera's Neave Barker reports from Moscow.