'Hold the election again': Gorbachev calls for Russian vote to be annulled as 51,000 troops take to streets to maintain order
- Protests are continuing for a third day
- 'They must be stopped': Putin promises to put down unsanctioned demos
- At least 250 protesters arrested, including opposition group leader
- Hillary Clinton calls again for full investigation into 'ballot box stuffing'
- 15,000 sign up to opposition rally for Saturday
- Putin formally submits application to run for President in 2012
Last updated at 6:44 PM on 7th December 2011
Ex-Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev has said Russian authorities must annul the parliamentary vote results and hold a new election.
He spoke as thousands of security forces took to Moscow's streets in a bid to maintain order - and protesters took to the streets for a third day of rallies over alleged voting fraud.
He said: 'More and more people are starting to believe that the election results are not fair. I believe that ignoring public opinion discredits the authorities and destabilises the situation. Authorities must admit that there have been numerous falsifications and ballot stuffing.'
At least 250 protesters were arrested in clashes in central Moscow yesterday. To try and counter more violence, more than 51,500 police officers and 2,000 paramilitary troops are now on high alert on the capital's streets in a bid to maintain order.
Scroll down for video
Anger: Pro-Kremlin and opposition demonstrators shout at each other during their rallies in Moscow this afternoon
Party on: One thousand people gathered at a pro-Putin concert this afternoon in central Moscow
About 1,000 people gathered at a pro-Putin concert this afternoon in central Moscow. The crowd of mainly young people waved Russian flags and danced as organizers spoke on a stage adorned with a banner reading The Future is Ours.
Someone dressed as a giant white bear - United Russia's mascot - danced among the crowd. He stopped occasionally to hug supporters - but kept right on dancing when someone ran out of the crowd to kick him in the rear.
College student Ivan Samburov, 17, said he had no interest in the protest rallies. He said: 'I prefer just to stand like this and dance, to have fun and improve my mood, to feel that everything is good.'
But an opposition rally has now been planned for Saturday. On Facebook, almost 15,000 people have signed up to take part.
Signing: Russian PM Vladimir Putin submitted documents today to officially register as a candidate in the March 2012 presidential election
Police detain leader of the opposition Yabloko party, Sergei Mitrokhin during protests against alleged vote rigging in Triumphal Square, Moscow, last night
Enlarge 
Around a hundred demonstrators ventured on to the streets despite PM Vladimir Putin demanding unsanctioned protests be quashed
Mariya Boyarintseva, a 24-year-old event manager, said she has never been to a political rally before but she was going to Saturday's protest.
Boyarintseva said she did not go to the rallies on Monday or Tuesday - which ended with clashes with police and hundreds detained - because 'it felt a bit scary'. She added: 'Now, I have a feeling that I ought to go,' she said.
Last night troops joined the fray to block off Triumphal Square and then became involved in running battles with about 100 demonstrators, who were chanting 'Putin is a crook and a thief'
Pro-government United Russia supporters also rallied across town in Revolution Square near the Kremlin. State television footage showed a crowd appearing to number in the thousands.
Defiant: Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin spoke at a meeting with the heads of regional public offices of the United Russia ruling party in Moscow yesterday
Among those arrested was the leader of the opposition Yabloko party, Sergei Mitrokhin, Boris Nemtsov, a liberal leader, along with prominent radical Eduard Limonov and Oleg Orlov, head of the human rights group Memorial.
A spokesman for Moscow police said that up to 4,000 police and interior ministry troops were deployed to keep the peace on the streets in the Russian capital last night.
But following on from Sunday's election which independent monitors described as 'unfair', the heavy-handed nature of the police actions will worry the West.
Interior Ministry forces spokesman Colonel Vasily Panchenkov told the Interfax news agency: 'They (the troops) have just one aim to ensure the security of the citizens.'
The crowds began to gather last night despite Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin saying any unsanctioned street protests had to be quashed.
The hardline leader's spokesman Dmitry Peskov said: 'The actions of those who hold unsanctioned demonstrations must be stopped in the appropriate way.'
His warning came the day after several thousand Russians protested against the result of Sunday's parliamentary election, which election monitors said was 'a game in which only one side could participate'.
'Those who hold sanctioned demonstrations should not have their rights limited in any way - and that is what we are observing now,' he said.
Hauled away: Police carry an opposition demonstrator feet first as they attempt to control the riots in the Russian capital
As one: Police gather in force to cordon off central Moscow's Triumfalnaya Square yesterday
Russian troops beefed up their presence across Moscow yesterday in anticipation of more protests against Mr Putin's re-election.
Police detained about 300 protesters in Moscow on Monday and 120 participants in a similar rally in St Petersburg.
Yesterday, one of the protest leaders, Ilya Yashin, who was among those arrested, was sentenced to 15 days in jail for disobeying police.
It follows the controversial result of Russia's parliamentary elections in which Mr Putin's party lost a significant number of seats.
Despite that, Mr Putin said he was satisfied with the performance in the election, adding that a drop in support is 'inevitable' for any ruling party.
Pro-Kremlin youth movements took to the streets yesterday afternoon to celebrate the election result ahead of an expected anti-Putin protest last night
Mr Putin has said he is pleased with the election result, despite his party losing a significant number of seats
Activists from the youth movement Nashi (Ours) hold flags with portraits of Russian President Dmitry Medvedev today celebrating the victory of the ruling party United Russia
The statement came as U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton criticised the election for the second straight day.
Speaking in Lithuania, Mrs Clinton said: 'Russian voters deserve a full investigation of electoral fraud and manipulation.'
Held: Officers detain an opposition activist during the rally. The police had beefed up its presence in anticipation of the unrest
'The Russian people, like people everywhere, deserve the right to have their voices heard and their votes counted,' Mrs Clinton said.
'And that means they deserve free, fair, transparent elections and leaders who are accountable to them.'
Mr Putin's party United Russia won around 50 per cent of Sunday's vote.
But opposition politicians and election monitors said the result was inflated because of ballot-box stuffing and other vote fraud.
It was a significant drop from the 2007 election when the party took 64 per cent, gaining a two-thirds majority that allowed it to change the constitution.
Mr Putin still claimed the party had retained a 'stable' majority.
'Yes, there were losses, but they were inevitable,' he said. 'They are inevitable for any political force, particularly for the one which has been carrying the burden of responsibility for the situation in the country.'
The results reflected public fatigue with Putin's authoritarian streak and widespread official corruption, signaling that his return to the presidency in next March's election may not be as trouble-free as he expected.
Public anger against a heavy-handed state interference in the campaign in support of United Russia and evidence of vote fraud prompted thousands of protesters to march across downtown Moscow last night, chanting 'Russia without Putin!'
Russian officials have denied any significant vote violations.
Revolution: Russian policemen detain a protester rallying against unfair parliamentary elections in Moscow
Members of election committee empty a ballot box after voting closed at a polling station
Konstantin Kosachev, a senior United Russia member who headed the foreign affairs committee in the outgoing parliament described Mrs Clinton's statement as 'one of the darkest pages in the Russian-U.S. relations' and warned Washington against supporting the opposition.
Russia's only independent election monitoring group, Golos, which is funded by U.S. and European grants, came under heavy official pressure ahead of the vote after Mr Putin likened Russian recipients of foreign support to Judas.
Golos' website was incapacitated by hackers on the voting day, and its director Lilya Shibanova and her deputy had their cell phone numbers, e-mail and social media accounts hacked.
Gorbachev's comments came on the same day that Putin officially registered to run for the presidency in a March vote.
Putin served as president from 2000 to 2008, when he moved into the prime minister's office because of a constitutional limit of two consecutive presidential terms.
A constitutional amendment pushed through parliament by United Russia extended the presidential term from four to six years. Under it, Putin, 59, could theoretically serve as Russia's leader until 2024.
The 80-year-old Gorbachev, leader of the Soviet Union from 1985 until its breakup in 1991, has long had tense relations with Putin, but until recent years had refrained from directing his criticism of Russian politics at Putin.
Putin has been extremely critical of Gorbachev's legacy, including his concession to what many Russians saw as Western pressure to pull Soviet troops out of Germany, and has blamed him for the Soviet Union's demise.
Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2070615/Russian-election-protests-Mikhail-Gorbachev-calls-vote-annulled.html#ixzz1fsWZK6fK
No comments:
Post a Comment