Activists of pro-Kremlin youth movements rally at the Manezhnaya Square in central Moscow, on December 6, 2011. Photo by Natalia Kolesnikova/AFP/Getty Images.
UPDATE: Thousand of Russian police and government troops are reportedly patrolling Moscow on Tuesday, one day after anti-Vladimir Putin demonstrators held one of the largest opposition rallies in the city in years and two days after Putin's party took a serious hit in the latest parliamentary elections.
The BBC reports that police arrested 300 protesters at the Monday event -- during which demonstrators chanted "Russia without Putin" -- including Alexi Navalny, which the network described as "a top anti-corruption campaigner and fierce critic of Mr. Putin."
Meanwhile, Putin looked to downplay his United Russia party's losses in this past weekend's parliamentary elections in which it won the election but failed to win a majority of the vote. The results were seen as a sharp rebuke of Putin and his government, an analysis that was only cemented with Monday's protest.
Electoral losses "are inevitable for any political force, especially for one which, not for the first year, bears the brunt of responsibility for the situation in the country," Putin said.
The Associated Press with more: "The loss of United Russia seats and the widespread complaints of vote fraud have energized Russia's beleaguered opposition forces. Putin's comments appeared aimed at saving face and discouraging the opposition from seeing United Russia as vulnerable."
Monday, Dec. 5: The United Russia party took a serious hit in the latest parliamentary elections, but the true degree of the rebuke voters appeared to send Vladimir Putin's party may have been even larger.
The Associated Press reports opposition leaders and election monitors say that even United Russia's lackluster results in the parliamentary elections were likely inflated because of voter fraud. Those concerns, which were backed by international observers, were echoed Monday by Secretary of State Hillary Clinton.
"Russian voters deserve a full investigation of all credible reports of electoral fraud and manipulation and we hope in particular that then Russian authorities will take action" on reports that come forward, Clinton said.
She added that "the Russian people, like people everywhere, deserve the right to have their voices heard and their votes counted. That means they deserve free, fair, transparent elections and leaders who are accountable to them."
Prime Minister Vladimir Putin, the already-twice former president who will run again in 2012, has suffered an apparent referendum along with his United Russia party at the polls.
The BBC reports that voters at exit polls on Sunday gave the powerful Russian party 48.5 percent support—a notable dip from 67 percent support in 2007. It may result in only 220 seats for the party in the 450-seat governmental body over the next five years, which would be a big drop from the current number of 315.
The results also appear to show that Putin’s popularity has dropped notably since the previous election, though he is still expected to win a third term as president easily in March.
Sunday’s vote to choose the country’s lower house, Duma, was not without other controversy. Russia’s sole independent election monitoring group Golos logged over 5,000 allegations of voter fraud before it’s website was hacked on election day, and fined earlier in the week for breaking a law against publishing election opinion research within five days of an election. Websites of other outlets that have been critical to Putin or the ruling party, like radio station Moscow Echo, were also hacked running up to voting.
“The attack on the website on election day is clearly an attempt to inhibit publication of information about violations,” said Moscow Echo editor Alexei Venediktov via Twitter, according to the BBC.
Reuters reports that within the country, United Russia leaders appeared stunned by the apparent referrendum, and many voters expressed a souring opinion about Putin's dominance in Russian politics and policy.
As one 30-year-old history teacher from St. Petersburg put it to Reuters: "United Russia has lost touch with reality."
Maybe they've been too busy being amazed at the prime minister's "good luck" of randomly discovering ancient treasures during scuba trips?
Well another election has taken place in Russia the out come was not satisfactory. It was legal by law and many of the same tactics are used to effect the out come of elections here in the United States. Lies and intimidation prevail in most national elections. If you read the above article and compare it to the United States many things may appear familiar. The People in Moscow are standing up for what they believe. However in a Country such as ---------- the people will fail because of those seeking ultimate power will use all power, dirty tricks, lies,and use of force upto and including lethal force. I believe that we should have very strict election laws so that we never let just the few control everything. Russian people one redneck Bigdog is supporting your actions.
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