rime Minister Vladimir Putin hit back at protests over alleged electoral fraud even as Russia’s biggest street demonstrations in a decade threaten to complicate his bid to return to the Kremlin next year.
Putin, in an annual live TV call-in show, pledged to bolster transparency during March’s presidential vote, but he rejected accusations of fraud at Dec 4 parliamentary elections.
“I ask the central election commission to install web cameras in all 90,000 polling stations in the country and put the footage on the Internet so the whole country can see,” he said. “As for the fairness or unfairness: the opposition will always say the elections were not fair. Always. This happens everywhere, in all countries.”
Putin showed he was relaxed about the mass protests and welcomed people to voice their opinions, but he also mocked the white ribbon that the protestors have used as their symbol and alleged that some had even been paid by the United States.
“I know that students were paid some money, well, that’s good if they could earn something,” he said. Putin last week accused US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton of encouraging the Russian opposition to protest.
Putin is facing the biggest unrest since he came to power 10 years ago. On Saturday, tens of thousands of protesters gathered in Moscow to protest against Putin.
Opposition groups got permission this week to stage a demonstration in Moscow on Dec 24 for as many as 50,000 people.
留言列表
