At least a hundred protestors were detained in Russia on Saturday as they carried out demonstrations in St Petersburg demanding that President Vladimir Putin not run for the elections next year, reported Reuters. The rallies were called by the Open Russia Movement founded by former oil tycoon and Kremlin critic Mikhail Khodorkovsky under the slogan “We are sick of him [Putin]”.

Putin has neither confirmed nor denied his candidacy for the presidential elections, scheduled for March 2018. “I don’t want Putin to stand in the next elections,” a 16-year-old student, Anna, present at the protests told AFP. Another protestor said, “Everything is bad. Education, health – everything has been destroyed. I want changes.”

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While protestors in St Petersburg refused to obey police orders to disperse, some 250 people took part in peaceful agitations in Moscow, reported Russia Today. Hundreds of them lined up outside the Kremlin administration building in the Capital to present letters asking Putin to not contest the next elections. At least 1,500 people presented their petitions in Moscow, according to The New York Times.

As opposition to Putin seeking a fourth term has been gaining ground in Russia, the police on Thursday, conducted searches at Open Russia’s Moscow offices and confiscated about a lakh blank appeal forms, which the organisation had hoped to hand out, reported Reuters.

Khodorsky, once Russia’s richest man, was freed by Putin in 2013 after he spent a decade in jail for fraud. He has been living in Britain since and is one of Kremlin’s most outspoken critics.

The Open Russia demonstrations were held a month after Opposition leader Alexei Navalny had organised the largest unauthorised rally on March 26. The police had detained more than a thousand protestors, including Navalny who ended up spending 15 days in jail. He had announced that he will stand for the presidential elections, but his conviction in an embezzlement case could bar him from running for office, according to BBC.