Around 8,000 people protested in Moscow and Saint Petersburg on Sunday against what they say were rigged parliamentary polls handing victory to Vladimir Putin’s ruling party. The new rallies come on the heels of a wave of protests that swept Russia last weekend after the opposition and independent observers said Putin’s United Russia party cheated its way to a slim majority in December 4 parliamentary polls.
More than 3,000 people attended a rally on Manezhnaya Square near the Kremlin walls organised by the Communist party, the runner-up in the parliamentary elections. Yury Molodkin said he joined the rally because he was “outraged” by Putin’s claims that protesters were in the pay of a foreign state and compared a symbol of the protests against his rule – the white ribbon – to condoms.
In a live televised phone-in beamed across Russia on Thursday, Putin claimed he wasn’t troubled by the largest protests of his 12-year rule and said he first thought the rallies were an anti-AIDS campaign and that its participants had pinned condoms to their lapels. Police put the turnout at the Moscow protest at 3,300 people.
In Saint Petersburg protesters chanting “Russia Will Be Free!” and holding signs such as one reading “Give Back My Vote!” also said they were offended by Putin’s claims they were hired to protest.
