Moscow Police to Probe Alleged Pro-Kremlin Rally Payment Scam

Moscow police will investigate complaints against the organizers of Saturday’s state-endorsed rally against foreign adoptions who allegedly refused to pay its participants for attending the event. Some 20 participants have filed complaints against a rally coordinator, who allegedly refused to pay them for their participation. Some 12,000 attended the “Rally in Defense of Children,” intended as a show of public support of the government. The sincerity of rally goers’ concerns was put into question ahead of the event due to online ads offering payments of 300 to 700 rubles ($10 to $23) for attending. The claim was vehemently rejected by the organizers, who called it “a smear campaign,” but RBC news website reported at least one group of people being paid 500 rubles per person after the rally. "It is awfully interesting, where the organizers of those 'putings' take these amounts of cash from?" rhetorically asks prominent anti-corruption activist Alexei Navalny in his blog.

http://en.rian.ru/russia/20130302/179781584/Moscow-Police-to-Probe-Alleged-Rally-Payment-Scam.html
http://navalny.livejournal.com/776839.html (video)