US News

Anti-Putin protesters arrested as disputed election sparks mass rally

MOSCOW — Opponents of Vladimir Putin were gathering in Moscow Monday night for a mass protest after his disputed victory, with reports of arrests both in the capital and in St. Petersburg.

The news agency AFP reported that Eduard Limonov, leader of the opposition Other Russia movement and 50 of his supporters were arrested at a demonstration outside the central election commission in Moscow.

Meanwhile, in Russia’s second city of St Petersburg, police reportedly arrested dozens of protesters from a demonstration of about 1,500 people, including local deputies from the liberal Yabloko party.

Opposition leaders have accused the authorities of widespread fraud and claim many people were allowed to cast multiple votes.

Speaking at a rally Sunday attended by tens of thousands of supporters outside the Kremlin in Moscow, an apparently tearful Putin insisted it had been an “open and honest” contest.

Putin’s spokesman, Dmitry Peskov, later insisted the freezing wind was responsible for the tears but there was clearly strong emotion behind the new president’s words. 

Later, via webcam, he thanked workers in a remote region saying they had managed to defeat those who had “insulted the working man,” presumably referring to the protest movement.

The 59-year-old former KGB spy picked up almost 64 percent of the vote — enough to avoid a run-off against the second-placed candidate. Independent monitoring website Golos reported thousands of allegations of cheating putting his actual figure at 50 percent.

The claims of so-called “carousel voting” were being received by independent monitoring group Golos, according to spokeswoman Lilia Shibanova.

Golos said it had registered at least 3,000 reports of violations nationwide but an interior ministry spokesman insisted there had been no major violations.

International observers led by the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe said that while there had been progress in transparency, the campaign had been massively tilted in Putin’s favour and was followed by major irregularities in the vote count, according to AFP.

The alleged fraud came despite the presence of thousands of independent observers and webcams at polling stations.

Putin, who was president between 2000 and 2008, is now set for a new six-year term as leader, replacing his close ally Dmitry Medvedev. He had been serving as prime minister for the past four years.

Putin’s campaign chief Stanislav Govorukhin has described the election as the “cleanest” in Russia’s history and  claimed reports of violations and accusations of vote rigging were “laughable.”

But Communist leader Gennady Zyuganov, who came second with 17 percent, said his party would not recognise the official results of the election, calling it “illegitimate, dishonest and untransparent.”

Billionaire tycoon Mikhail Prokhorov got just under eight percent of the vote and nationalist Vladimir Zhirinovsky a little over six percent. Ex-parliamentary speaker Sergei Mironov came fifth with just under four percent.

On the streets, meanwhile, Putin’s opponents vowed to step up their protests. At least 30,000 people were expected to attend Monday night’s “Russia Without Putin” demonstration in Moscow, which follows a pro-Putin rally.

The protest has been sanctioned by the authorities but police — who have brought in 6,300 extra officers from across Russia — warned they would break up any unauthorized gatherings.

To read more, go to Sky News.