Tens of thousands protest against alleged vote fraud in Russia

[News_Editor]

Tens of thousands protest against alleged vote fraud in Russia

2011-12-11 07:22:07 GMT+7 (ICT)

MOSCOW (BNO NEWS) -- Tens of thousands of Russians staged anti-government protests across the country on Saturday to criticize the recent elections which they claim were rigged in favor of Vladimir Putin's governing United Russia party, authorities said.

The demonstrations, which are the largest since the fall of the Soviet Union, began on the country's Pacific Ocean coast and moved westwards over eight time zones. In Moscow, thousands of protesters waved banners and chanted slogans to demand the resignation of election commission chief Vladimir Churov and other officials such as Putin himself, RIA Novosti reported.

Police estimated that around 25,000 people participated in the rally in Moscow alone, although organizers said the number was closer to 40,000. "We demand new elections because what happened on December 4 was a falsification," opposition activist Yevgeniya Chirikova told the crowd.

Last weekend, Russia held parliamentary elections which many Russian voters and international observers said were marred by large-scale fraud. The ruling United Russia party won more votes than any of the other three parties, but it still suffered a significant drop from the two-thirds constitutional majority it has enjoyed for the past four years.

Thousands of people also rallied in other Russian cities. About 7,000 people gathered in St. Petersburg's central Pionerskaya Square, where at least ten people were arrested, a spokesman told local media.

Dozens of arrests were reported nationwide, but there were no reports of serious violence, police said. At least 1,000 people have so far been arrested in protests over the past five days, according to news reports.

Among those arrested during the protests earlier this week was anti-corruption blogger Alexei Navalny and opposition activist Ilya Yashin. They were both sentenced to 15 days in prison for refusing to obey police orders, reports said.

Russian expats also demonstrated on Saturday in a show of solidarity with their compatriots in the homeland. Small protests were reported in Sweden, Germany, Italy, Israel, Ukraine and other countries.

There was no immediate comment on Saturday from Putin or President Dmitry Medvedev to the protests. But Andrei Isayev, a senior United Russia official, said the party would take account of the demands voiced by the protesters.

"There is no doubt that people protesting against the result of the vote or against the way it was handled have a right to do this," Isayev, first deputy secretary of the party's general council presidium, told RIA Novosti. "I assure you, we will listen to this rally," he added.

Putin and Medvedev have said complaints of vote irregularities would be investigated. They also said citizens have the right to assemble publicly to express their political views as long as they abide by the law.

Russian police arrested more than 560 people on Tuesday as Moscow witnessed a second evening of protests over the alleged electoral fraud. Days later, Putin accused the United States of meddling in Russian affairs and encouraging the protests after U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton criticized the December 4 election.

-- © BNO News All rights reserved 2011-12-11

[baboon]

It will be iteresting to see how this one develops. What do my fellow news junkies think will happen? Putin will NOT be pleased at the impertinence of his electorate....

[MrMuddle]

It's good that people in Russia can protest without any violence,as it says in the story. It will indeed be interesting to see what happens in the coming weeks. I worked in Russia during the communist era, and there was absolutely no way that people would have dared to protest then. Politics was simply not discussed then, it's good to see some progress has been made, I enjoyed my time there, the people were very friendly.

[KKvampire]

reminds me of Florida 2000

[NxaiPan]

reminds me of Florida 2000

Reminds me of China in ..........oh wait, China, good at military intervention across its borders, not so keen on any form of genuine participation by its 1.1 billion people..

Authoritarian regimes whether they be Putin's Russia, Hu's China, Ahmadinejad's Iran, Mugabe's Zimbabwe etc really don't like their people having a real say as they have more than a sneaking suspicion what they might actually say if they were allowed to do so.

[JohnL]

Does anyone have any idea when Putin had his 'Jump the Shark' moment?

[geriatrickid]

The protests are a good thing as it means that people do care. It also means that Russia has made tremendous progress if the people are secure enough to voice their views in public.

I doubt Putin is going anywhere for now. The election results and the protests must come as a shock and a blow to the Putin ego. If he is as smart as I think he is, he will respond approrpriately and that means making an effort to address some of the key concerns of the people. It was a big mistake to blame Secretary Clinton for the protests and that was the old KGB Putin reacting. With time and some reflection, hopefully the motives for the protests will sink in to the skulls of the ruling party.

Russia is a an important component for ensuring world peace, but Russia is still having problems understanding that it has to transition from military force to social and moral leader. If Russia can step up, it may find itself assuming a major leadership role in the stability of Europe, a position it once held long ago when Russia was considered a part of the European fabric. There isn't any reason why Russia canot be a force for positive change in the world, if it can just shake off some of the insecurities and political short sightedness that held it back for most of the last century. It is a country that holds alot of strategic cards; energy, water and agriculture. Putin should concentrate on using those assets to build Russia's position. Russia already has Germany and some of the baltic countries by the nuts as Russia is the major energy supplier.. Now wouldn't that be a strange twist of events where Russia becomes the saviour of Europe?

[Jingthing]

reminds me of Florida 2000

Nothing like it. There were no mass protests.

[baboon]

Great to see you all starting to get stuck in. I can`t wait to see what happens next.

If not Putin then who? Zhirinovsky? Zhuganev? Will the OMON stand their ground?

[koheesti]

It is progress that not only are the protests allowed to happen but that the Kremlin acknowledged it.

[abcz9]

and where did this story come from if the main media then most of it is lies. do yourselfs a favour and go what really happened . com

[Scott]

A series of off-topic posts have been deleted. I am not sure where or why this topic is straying, but personal conversations are best conducted by PM.

The discussion which was moving in the direction of China and the Mekong River patrols is covered in this topic:

Thanks.