Putin under pressure after protests

MOSCOW, Sunday

Russia’s Vladimir Putin faced the most intense political pressure of his dominant 12-year rule on Sunday after tens of thousands rallied across the country and swarmed in Moscow in an angry protest.

Saturday’s historic demonstrations near the Kremlin saw more than 50,000 chant “Russia without Putin” and deride his ruling party for its narrow victory in December 4 elections that were alleged to have been riddled with fraud.

Unprecedented

The show of public frustration was unprecedented for a city that emerged from the tumultuous 1990s as the birthplace of the “managed democracy” system that Putin set up across Russia on his rise to the presidency in 2000.

Putin stayed out of the public limelight while his spokesman issued a carefully-worded statement referring to “a democratic protest by a section of the population” that did not represent the country as a whole.

“We respect the point of view of the protesters. We are hearing what is being said and we will continue to listen to them,” Putin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said in the overnight statement.

The ex-KGB agent now serves as premier and this month’s legislative poll was seen as a litmus test of his decision to return to the Kremlin for up to 12 more years in March elections that he seemed destined to win.

But scenes similar to those witnessed in Moscow were also replayed on a smaller scale across the industrial hubs of Siberia and the Urals — a sign that Putin’s path back may be more fraught than it appeared just a week ago.

“Right now there is actually a chance for us to change something,” said 44-year-old Anna Bekhmentova as the demonstrators chanted “No to a police state!” and tied the protest movement’s white ribbons to their winter coats.