During Call-In Show, Vladimir Putin Dimisses Russian Protesters - NPR (blog)

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Russia's Prime Minister Vladimir Putin gestures during his annual phone-in session with Russians in Moscow.

Alexei Nikolsky/AFP/Getty Images

Russia's Prime Minister Vladimir Putin gestures during his annual phone-in session with Russians in Moscow.

During a call-in show, Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin said the massive protests against his 12-year rule were paid for by his opposition and supported by the West.

The AP reports:

"'The results of this election undoubtedly reflect the real balance of power in the country," Putin said on a marathon TV show that lasted 4 1/2 hours. "It's very good that United Russia has preserved its leading position.'

"Yet in a characteristic move, he accused protest organizers of working to destabilize the country on orders from the West. 'That's a well-organized pattern of destabilizing society,' Putin said.

Reuters reports that Putin also offered some back-handed compliments to protesters.

"I saw on people on the TV screens ... mostly young people, active and with positions that they expressed clearly," Putin said according to Reuters. "This makes me happy, and if that is the result of the Putin regime, that's good — there's nothing bad about it."

"They will at least make some money," he added.

Putin went on to say that when he saw the massive protest this past Saturday, he was confused by the white ribbons worn by protesters. The Moscow Times reports he said he thought they were wearing anti-AIDS ribbons and that it looked like demonstrators had put on "some condoms."

Putin's comments are likely to fuel further protests. The demonstrations are seen as a serious challenge to his rule and the largest of their kind since the fall of the Soviet Union. Putin is in a tough position: Despite accusations of fraud, his party suffered major losses during this month's election. The discontent might extend to his presidential bid early next year.

Reuters reports that Russians on Twitter expressed dismay at his speech and that "a doctored photo was soon doing the rounds on the Internet, with Putin wearing a condom on his chest instead of a medal."

Putin, a black belt, revels in Olympic judo - CBS News

(AP) LONDON - He clenched his fists at times, leaned back nervously at others. And when his compatriots won Olympic gold, he leaped from his seat and thrust his fists skyward.

A common fan reaction ? from an uncommon fan.

Vladimir Putin was one thrilled Russian president on Thursday.

The longtime judo enthusiast had a VIP seat to watch Tagir Khaibulaev win the 100-kilogram gold medal. When the match ended, Putin led the celebration. He slipped back into his suit jacket, met Khaibulaev moments after he walked off the mat, wrapped him in a warm embrace, and tousled his hair.

Russian President Vladimir Putin congratulates Tagir Khaibulaev.

(Credit: AP Photo)

"You should be proud," Putin was heard telling Khaibulaev.

Later, Khaibulaev acknowledged the obvious.

"I am honored," he said.

Complete coverage: London 2012 Olympics
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Harrison wins U.S.A.'s first-ever gold in judo

Putin arrived Thursday in London under the guise of diplomacy, heading first to No. 10 Downing Street for a talk with British Prime Minister David Cameron. The heads of state met for about 45 minutes before heading out to the Olympic judo venue, taking second-row seats just after the 78-kilogram women's semifinals.

Putin spent time appearing to educate Cameron on the finer points of judo ? after all, Putin is a black belt, serves as the honorary president of the International Judo Federation and even wrote a book about the sport called "Judo: History, Theory, Practice." With a translator leaning over their shoulders, Putin would lean in toward Cameron, talk a bit and make a few gestures with his hands, the prime minister mostly nodding.

There also were moments where Putin got serious.

When Khaibulaev faced Dmitri Peters ? who was born in Russia and now competes for Germany ? in the semifinals, the chatting stopped. Putin watched almost entirely in silence, took a deep breath when the scoreless bout went to overtime, then showed a broad smile when Khaibulaev was announced as the winner after no points were awarded in the extra period.

Khaibulaev went on to win the final, much to Putin's delight, of course.

Cameron did not have the same luck. Britain had a finalist in the 78-kilogram women's event ? but Gemma Gibbons lost to American Kayla Harrison, the first judo gold for the U.S.

"I had the great privilege of meeting her afterwards, she was very emotional, very excited," Cameron told Britain's Sky News television.

Politics has often been in the spotlight at the London Games.

First lady Michelle Obama spent three days at the Olympics to cheer on the American delegation. Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney ? who led the 2002 Salt Lake Games ? was criticized in the British press as the games opened by saying problems facing Olympic organizers were "disconcerting." Hours before Putin arrived at judo, Ann Romney, the candidate's wife, cheered on a horse she partly owns as it competed in the equestrian dressage event.

Before heading to the judo venue, Cameron and Putin discussed, among other things, Russia's reluctance to support a U.N. resolution trying to halt violence in Syria. Through a translator, Putin said the nations would "continue working to find a viable solution."

When talk turned to sports, Putin seemed far more at ease.

"Unforgettable," he said in reference to the opening ceremony of the London Games.

Putin has been a judo competitor since his childhood. His interest in sports is well-known and widespread ? he's driven race cars, is a soccer fan, enjoys downhill skiing and in recent years has even tried to add ice hockey to his athletic repertoire.

Russia has long been a global sports power, and is about to step even further into the forefront by hosting the 2014 Sochi Olympics and 2018 World Cup.

Protests After Putin's Election Win - Sky News

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6:23am UK, Monday March 05, 2012

Opponents of Vladimir Putin are planning to stage mass protests in Moscow today after his disputed victory in the country's presidential election.

They have accused his United Russia party of widespread fraud and claim many people were allowed to vote twice.

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

The violations our rivals and the opponents of our president will now speak of are laughable.

Vladimir Putin's campaign chief Stanislav Govorukhin

The 59-year-old former KGB spy picked up almost 64% of the vote - enough to avoid a run-off against the second-placed candidate.

Mr Putin, who was president between 2000 and 2008, is now set for a new six-year term as leader. He has been serving as prime minister for the past four years.

:: Read the latest Sky News coverage of the Russian elections

His nearest rival in the election, Communist Party leader Gennady Zyuganov, took just over 17% of the vote.

Mr Zyuganov said his party would not recognise the official results of the election, calling it "illegitimate, dishonest and untransparent".

He added that with public anger increasing Mr Putin "would not be able to rule like he used to".

Mr Putin casts his vote in the presidential election - his third

Billionaire tycoon Mikhail Prokhorov got just under 8% of the vote and nationalist Vladimir Zhirinovsky a little over 6%. Ex-parliamentary speaker Sergei Mironov came fifth with just under 4%.

The central election commission said the turnout was 64%, almost 6% down on the 2008 presidential vote but higher than for the parliamentary elections in December.

Mr Putin's opponents said voting in many parts of the country was manipulated to help him regain the presidency, replacing his close ally Dmitry Medvedev.

They vowed to step up their protests, the biggest in Russia since he first gained power 12 years ago.

At least 30,000 people are expected to attend a "Russia Without Putin" demonstration in Moscow tonight, which will follow 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 - have warned they will break up any unauthorised gatherings.

There were reports of widespread voting violations during the election, including allegations people were being bussed around to cast their ballots several times.

An anti-Putin protest in Moscow during the election campaign

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.

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

Mr Putin's campaign chief Stanislav Govorukhin said: "This is the cleanest election in Russia's entire history.

"The violations our rivals and the opponents of our president will now speak of are laughable."

The election was held against a backdrop of popular discontent, sparked by allegations of widespread fraud during December's parliamentary elections in favour of the United Russia party.

Mr Putin has remained the dominant force in Russian politics since being forced to step aside as president because was barred from a third straight term by the constitution.

But many voters have grown tired of his macho antics - such as horse riding bare-chested - and his popularity has waned amid falling living standards despite Russia's huge natural resources.

He will begin his third term as president in May.

Riot police break up anti-Putin rally in Moscow - Globe and Mail

Thousands of riot police moved in on demonstrators who filled the streets of central Moscow chanting "We won't leave" and "Russia without Putin" in protest against Vladimir Putin's return to the Kremlin on Monday.

Many protesters left promising to return for a sanctioned rally on Saturday, March 10th. Some, The Globe and Mail has confirmed, were planning to establish a tent city Monday night similar to those used by Ukrainian protesters during the 2004 Orange Revolution and Egyptian activists on Cairo's Tahrir Square last year.

More related to this story

• Widespread fraud alleged over Putin's presidential election win
• Vladimir Putin: A 21st-century czar
• International observers say 'serious problems' in Russian' election

Such rolling non-stop protests on a central Moscow square – just 1.5 kilometres from the Kremlin walls – would pose an unprecedented challenge to Mr. Putin's rule. The Kremlin and Moscow city authorities have both warned that they won't tolerate any effort to carry out an Orange Revolution repeat in Russia.

Thousands of extra riot police and Interior Ministry troops, many of them waiting in armoured vehicles, were deployed around Pushkin Square, where the opposition is legally permitted to demonstrate from 7 to 10 p.m. Monday night Moscow time (10 a.m. to 1 p.m. EST). They were backed by dozens of street sweeping vehicles parked in plain sight just around the corner from Pushkin Square.

At least 100 pro-Putin agitators stood in the middle of crowd, trying to shout down speakers.

The opposition protests were planned well in advance, but they gained justification earlier Monday when election monitoring missions sent by the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe and the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe both concluded that Sunday's presidential election had been unfair, with state resources used to ensure Mr. Putin's easy victory.

"The point of elections is that the outcome should be uncertain. This was not the case in Russia, there was no real competition, and abuse of government resources ensured that the ultimate winner of the election was never in doubt," Tonino Picula, a spokesman for the OSCE monitors, said of a vote that saw Mr. Putin claim 63 per cent of the vote, 45 points clear of his nearest rival, Communist leader Gennady Zyuganov. PACE made similar remarks, as did Golos, a Russian election-monitoring  group that receives funding from the U.S. government.

Mr. Zyuganov, who has thus far refused to recognize Mr. Putin's win, has also called his supporters into the streets Monday for a parallel protest on Pushkin Square that is already underway.

In a meeting with three other defeated candidates, Mr. Putin said he would order Central Election chairman Vladimir Churov to "thoroughly look into" the mounting number of complaints. However, that seemed unlikely to appease critics who have been calling for Mr. Churov's dismissal since a December parliamentary election that was marred by similar allegations of fraud.

In what seemed like another effort to defuse anti-government sentiment, President Dmitry Medvedev made the surprise announcement that he was ordering a review of jailed oligarch Mikhail Khodorkovsky's jail sentence.  Mr. Khodorkovsky, who is considered an icon of defiance by some members of the opposition, has been in jail since 2003 and is not due for release until 2017.

He was convicted seven years ago on charges of fraud and tax evasion that materialized after he dared to challenge Mr. Putin politically. New charges of embezzlement, and another conviction, came in 2010 as the end of his first jail sentence drew near.

It was hard to know what to make of the announcement, given that Mr. Medvedev is in the last weeks of his presidency. The long-time Putin protégé, who showed only flashes of independence from Mr. Putin during his time in the Kremlin, has mutely stepped aside to allow his old boss to return to the top job after Mr. Putin spent the past four years in the theoretically subordinate post of prime minister.

If the review of Mr. Khodorkovsky's case was an effort to soften the Kremlin's image in the eyes of its critics, Mr. Putin also made sure that he didn't come across as too soft, denying that he was crying as he thanked his supporters at a massive outdoor victory rally on Sunday.

"It was windy, the tears were real, but they were caused by the wind," he told supporters.

Russian presidential vote: Live Report - AFP

By Nick Morrison (AFP) – 3 hours ago 

1849 GMT: Putin's share of the vote is rising, according to the latest official count, which gives him 63%.

1847 GMT: Back in Moscow, the lavishly-staged concert to celebrate Putin's apparent victory has begun, says AFPTV's Paul Gypteau, though there is so far no sign of the man himself.

Over 100,000 participants are braving temperatures of minus 4 Celsius to be there.

"We are for Putin. We are for stability," one of the participants, engineer Aleksandr Sokolov, told AFP.

But some participants said that they had been ordered to attend the rally.

"We don't support him. We've been forced to come here by our managers. We have a job, we have families, we can't afford to lose them," one man told AFP on condition of anonymity.

1845 GMT: More on the polling station attack: "Unknown armed men, their faces masked, attacked a polling station an hour after closing," first deputy interior minister Alexander Gorokhovoi is quoted by the Interfax news agency as saying.

One attacker was also killed in the shootout with police.

1843 GMT: Three police have been killed in an attack on a polling station in Dagestan -- an unstable Caucasus region neighbouring Chechnya -- the Interfax news agency quoted an Interior Ministry spokesman as saying.

Dagestan, a Muslim Caspian Sea region known for its ancient culture and tapestry of ethnic groups, is fighting an insurgency by militants seeking to establish an Islamic state across the Russian Caucasus.

1841 GMT: Election commission head Vladimir Churov has denied reports of irregularities like those we've listed below, saying organisers are "working perfectly".

1840 GMT: Russian phrase of the day: "carousel voting". This is organised repeat voting in which people are said to use absentee ballots to vote several times at polling stations run by corrupt officials.

A website set up by protest leader Alexei Navalny, Rosvybory, aired an interview with a woman named Kristina, who said she cast her vote twice for a payment of 5,000 rubles ($171).

Hundreds of buses were parked on Moscow's central Bolotnaya Square on Sunday packed with young people from provincial towns who said they had voted for Putin, an AFP correspondent reported.

"I came here to vote for Vladimir Vladimirovich (Putin)," said a young man from Belomorsk in the Far North, without giving his name or saying why he had travelled over 1,000 kilometres (600 miles) to vote.

1835 GMT: Reports of irregularities appear to be building; the Control2012 website -- an umbrella website for the record number of election observers -- is listing more than 5,000 violations.

Tycoon candidate Mikhail Prokhorov tweeted that his supporters acting as observers had recorded more than 4,000 violations.

Videos of alleged fraud were meanwhile springing up online -- the Gazeta.ru website posted a video from a polling station web cam in Dagestan in the North Caucasus, showing several men feeding a constant stream of ballot papers into electronic ballot boxes.

1820 GMT: Billionaire candidate Mikhail Prokhorov, who secured about 7.47% of votes according to the preliminary results, has called the conduct of the election "dishonest" -- joining the Communists and liberals in condemning the poll.

"But I accepted this challenge and I ran for president," he told Russian television.

Prokhorov added he now plans to create "a political party that will fight for power".

Earlier TV reports had said journalists were offered champagne and sushi at Prokhorov's ultramodern headquarters, where floor-to-ceiling windows displayed views of the capital, on Sunday evening.

1810 GMT: The pro-Putin crowd in the Russian capital has swelled to 110,000 people, police are saying.

"I voted for Putin because I trust him" and "Putin is the perfect president" are among the slogans chanted by the crowd, AFP reporters say.

1805 GMT: Members of the huge crowd of Putin fans are waving flags and swaying as music plays. A stage had been set up in advance in the central Moscow square.

For a show of manpower from Putin's opponents, observers will have to wait until tomorrow, when leaders of the recent protests have said they will demonstrate in Pushkin Square for "Russia without Putin". They expect a turnout of at least 30,000.

That rally has been sanctioned by the authorities but police -- who have brought in 6,300 extra officers from across Russia -- have warned they will break up any unauthorised gatherings.

1800 GMT: More than 100,000 Putin supporters have gathered in central Moscow on Manezh Square near the Kremlin, according to TV reports.

The crowd was chanting "We are for Putin!" following the announcement of his apparent landslide victory.

Nashi (Ours), the pro-Kremlin youth group, plans a rock-concert-style mass rally there tonight.

1748 GMT: Liberal politician and opposition protest movement leader Vladimir Ryzhkov says the presidential election "cannot be considered legitimate in any way."

1742 GMT: In stark contrast to Govorukhin's view, the polls are described as "crooked" and "absolutely unfair" by Communist candidate Gennady Zyuganov.

1737 GMT: In his first reaction to the vote, director of Putin's electoral campaign Stanislav Govorukhin describes the elections as "the most honest in the whole of Russia's history", according to AFPTV's Paul Gypteau.

1730 GMT: Putin is on course to win Russia's presidential elections in the first round in a landslide victory over his four rivals, an exit poll survey by the state-run VTsIOM polling institute and initial results suggest.

Putin will win 58.3% of the vote, the exit poll is projecting, while early results based on 14.5% of Russia's polling stations say he has won 61.8% of the vote, the central election commission says.

The early results -- gathered mainly from the Far East and Siberia where polls closed several hours ago -- showed Communist Party leader Gennady Zyuganov trailing in second with 17.8%.

The firebrand nationalist Vladimir Zhirinovsky was scoring 8.0%, tycoon Mikhail Prokhorov 7.6%, while the left-leaning former upper house speaker Sergei Mironov was fifth with 3.7%, the early results showed.

VTsIOM projects Zyuganov to come second with 17.7%, while Prokhorov was to finish third with 9.2%.

Zhirinovsky is on course to finish fourth with 8.5%, while Mironov was likely to finish last with 4.8%, the pollster said.

VTsIOM, whose exit polls are commissioned by Russian state television and which has developed a reputation of closely predicting final results, said 31.7% of the respondents refused to answer their survey.

1720 GMT: "Very early tomorrow morning, we will be able to unveil the first preliminary results with 99% of the votes counted," says electoral commission chief Churov.

1715 GMT: "There won't be a second round. We're counting on victory in the first round," says Stanislav Govorukhin, director of Putin's electoral campaign.

1712 GMT: With 14.5% of polling station results in, Putin is winning the election with 61.80% of the vote, according to the head of the electoral commission Vladimir Churov.

1707 GMT: Vladimir Putin is set to win the presidential poll with over 58% of the vote, according to an exit poll, my AFP colleagues report from Moscow.

1704 GMT: The last polling station for this election has closed in the Western Russian exclave of Kaliningrad, a port on the Baltic Sea.

1655 GMT: The webcams installed by the Russian authorities in tens of thousands of polling stations across the country in a bid to counter allegations of fraud are performing inconsistently, according to checks made by AFP correspondents.

The images are blocked regularly, the ballot boxes are aren't visible and the connection on the official site is less than perfect, my colleague Maria Panina reports.

1645 GMT: Allegations of fraud in the vote are increasing, my colleague Maria Panina reports from the Russian capital.

In Moscow, the opposition Yabloko party have denounced "widespread fraud", claiming people have voted in two different polling stations while bundles of ballots have been stuffed into ballot boxes in Bryansk, Tambov, Nizhny Novgorod and Novosibirsk.

1632 GMT: More than 50 percent of the electorate have voted across Russia according to the election commission, less than an hour before the final ballot box is closed, having flocked to polling stations from the early hours of this morning.

"I had to queue for a long time here - but it's great! I hate it when the people don't come along to vote and complain afterwards that we've chosen for them," said 40-year-old Moscow engineer Igor Kolossov after having slipped his voting papers into the ballot box.

1620 GMT: My colleague Maria Panina in the Russian capital says dozens of lorries full of policemen have been deployed in the centre of Moscow, near to the famed Bolshoi Theatre.

"There are so many police in the centre that it looks like the people are going to depose the president, rather than elect him," comments blogger Andrey Kozenko.

1610 GMT: In a bid to counter the allegations of vote-rigging that tarred December's parliamentary elections, Russian authorities have installed web cameras in 95,000 polling stations across the country to ensure transparency.

My colleague Maria Antonova reports from Moscow that the webcams are doing a good job in keeping Russia amused with quirky scenes but failed to erase suspicions about the process.

Disco dancing, children fighting and lovers kissing were among the sights glimpsed by Russians watching the live relays of the election process from the pair of webcams installed in each of the polling stations.

WELCOME TO AFP'S LIVE TEXT COVERAGE OF THE RUSSIAN presidential election, in which current prime minister Vladimir Putin is expected to win a third term after the final polling station in the world's largest country closes at 1700 GMT.

Putin was president for two consecutive four-year terms between 2000 and 2008 before stepping aside for his protege Dmitry Medvedev to take over. He has been prime minister since 2008.

Voters from Vladivostok on the Pacific to the Western exclave of Kaliningrad, a port wedged between Poland and the Baltic Sea, have been casting their ballots in a marathon election stretched over 21 hours in which victory for 59-year-old ex-KGB spy Putin appears inevitable.

Moscow police have drafted thousands of extra officers into the capital for the vote that is also being monitored by tens of thousands of independent observers on the lookout for signs of vote-rigging.

Despite recent anti-government demonstrations, state pollsters have forecast a first-round win for Putin with 60 percent of the vote, leaving his Communist rival Gennady Zyuganov trailing in second place with 15 percent.

Tycoon Mikhail Prokhorov and the flamboyant populist Vladimir Zhirinovsky are expected to battle for third place while the former upper house speaker Sergei Mironov is tipped to finish last, but there are no candidates representing the fledgling protest movement.

The main suspense does not surround the final result but whether Putin can win easily in the first round against his four rivals and if allegations of vote-rigging will spark a succession of protests to seriously challenge him.

Copyright © 2012 AFP. All rights reserved. More »

Putin assassination plot: opposition, security experts cast doubt (+video) - Christian Science Monitor

Russian and Ukrainian security services announced Monday that they have thwarted an attempt by Chechen militants to assassinate Vladimir Putin after next Sunday's vote, in which he is expected to be elected as Russia's president.

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The plot's exposure, coming on the eve of elections in which Mr. Putin is under great pressure to pull off a convincing first-round victory, has prompted predictable skepticism from the opposition. Even some security experts say the timing seems a bit fishy, and the conspiracy, as explained on state TV, somewhat too vague to be thrust into the day's news headlines.

A video broadcast on the state-run Channel One Monday showed Chechen terrorist suspect Adam Osmayev, with a badly battered face, confessing that he and two accomplices had been sent to Odessa, in Ukraine, to prepare for the attack.

"The final task was to go to Moscow and carry out an assassination attempt on Prime Minister Putin," Mr. Osmayev is shown saying. "The deadline was set up for the period after the presidential elections."

RELATED: Think you know Russia? Take our quiz.

The report said that the men were detained in Odessa last January after a blast in a rented apartment, apparently caused by a homemade bomb, killed one of the gang. The other two, under interrogation by Ukrainian security forces, admitted they had been sent by Chechen Islamist warlord Doku Umarov to research and equip for the assassination attempt on Putin.

The plan reportedly involved striking Putin's motorcade with powerful "anti-tank mines" planted along the side of Moscow's central Kutuzovsky Prospekt, which is part of Putin's regular route to work as he travels from his home, near the Moscow-region town of Usovo, to government headquarters each day. According to the report, the suspects had information about Putin's daily habits on a laptop computer, including videos of his motorcade shot from different angles.

Experts say that such an attack would be extremely difficult. The entire route between Putin's suburban home and his office is usually completely closed down and cleared of traffic. The streets are patrolled by police cruisers and security agents are posted every few-hundred yards, before Putin even begins moving. When he does move, it is always in a convoy of several armored cars that typically tears along the empty roads at speeds of about 150 miles per hour.

"What we're hearing doesn't really sound like something well-planned and conceived, but more like somebody's ambition," says Andrei Soldatov, editor of the online journal Agentura.ru, which reports on security issues, and co-author of The New Nobility, a new book about Russia's secret services.

"It's not clear why this needed to be made public today," he adds.

The state-owned English-language TV network RT quoted Viktor Ozerov, the head of the Kremlin-appointed, upper parliamentary house's defense and security committee, as saying that Putin is a perennial target of terrorists. "All Vladimir Putin's actions … have been aimed at fighting with bandit formations, organized crime, and terrorism," he said. "Putin has stepped on the throat and tail of many a terrorist and this is why the preparations for such terrorist attack are hardly a surprise."

But political experts say the timing of the announcement looks more like an election ploy than serious news.

"It sounds like complete nonsense and bluff," says Stanislav Belkovsky, president of the independent Institute of National Strategy in Moscow. "The real threat is that Putin looks like he might get less than 40 percent of the votes, when he needs 20 percent more for a convincing victory. So, obviously they're throwing in everything to ensure he'll win in the first round."

Yury Kobaladze, a former KGB agent who's now a businessman, says it even makes poor politics.

"I haven't had anything to do with the special services for some time, but as a citizen, I think the timing chosen for this news is all wrong," he says. "It won't influence Putin's supporters, but it will give the opposition a chance to criticize by saying it's all nonsense."

Mr. Soldatov points out that officials have announced several previous attempts on Putin's life, and all such declarations have been followed by silence.

"I think we can count about 12 previous occasions in which security officials have said they thwarted a plot to kill Putin, some of them outside of Russia in former Soviet countries," he says. "Yet we have never seen a single trial of suspects take place. Not one. We have no idea what happened to the alleged perpetrators of these plots. That's really odd."

Russians stage rival protests over Putin - Stuff.co.nz

THOMAS GROVE AND ALISSA DE CARBONNEL

Tens of thousands of Russians defied bitter cold in Moscow to demand fair elections in a march against Vladimir Putin's 12-year rule, while supporters of the prime minister staged a rival rally drawing comparable numbers.

Smaller protests were held in other cities across the vast country maintaining pressure on Putin one month before a March 4 presidential election he is expected to win. Putin's public image was shaken in December by allegations of fraud in parliamentary elections and protests unthinkable a year ago.

Their breath turning to white vapour clouds in the frigid Moscow air, tens of thousands of protesters marched within sight of the red-brick Kremlin walls and towers, chanting "Russia without Putin!" and "Give us back the elections!"

Putin was president from 2000 until 2008, when he ushered Dmitry Medevedev into the Kremlin because of a constitutional bar on three successive terms as head of state. Putin became prime minister but remained the dominant leader.

Putin presents himself as a man of action working for the good of the people and dismisses rivals as divided and lacking in any realistic policies to overcome the country's problems of industrial decay and poor transport and communications.

On Saturday, he was 1,500 km (900 miles) from Moscow, promising angry residents of the Ural Mountains town of Roza the state would move 3,800 people from homes threatened by shifting ground on the edge of the biggest open-pit coal mine in Eurasia.

"You see what we are doing, we are dealing with concrete problems of the people who live here," Putin said when asked about the demonstrations.

Saturday's temperatures, far below freezing, tested the power and perseverance of a street protest movement fuelled by suspicions of fraud in a December parliamentary election and dismay among some Russians over Putin's plan to rule at least six more years.

In the capital, demonstrators bundled up against the cold marched down a broad central street, many wearing white ribbons symbols of protests whose main motto is "For Honest Elections." A digital clock flashed the temperature: minus 17 C (1 F).

"Not one vote for Putin!" Vladimir Ryzhkov, a liberal opposition leader, said to a roar of approval from the crowd at the rally that followed the march. Protesters packed a square across the river from the Kremlin, stamping and clapping to keep warm.

A patchwork alliance of disparate opposition leaders is trying to maintain momentum after tens of thousands turned out on December 10 and December 24 for the biggest opposition protests since Putin was first elected president in 2000.

Polls indicate Putin is all but certain to win the presidency despite a decline from previous popularity levels.

Opponents hope he will at least be forced into a runoff by falling short of a majority on March 4 and that persistent protests will undermine his authority, loosening his grip on power in a new six-year term and pushing him into concessions.

"We have already reached a point of no return. People have stopped being afraid and see how strong they are together," said Ivan Kositsky, 49. He said Putin "wants stability, but you can only find stability in the graveyard."

Kositsky wore an orange ribbon in a reference to the 2004 Orange Revolution in Ukraine, where peaceful protests following allegations of widespread election fraud helped usher an opposition candidate to the presidency.

Opposition leaders said up to 120,000 people joined their protest in Moscow, which appeared smaller than that but as large as the December rallies that drew tens of thousands - suggesting their fears a cold snap might keep people away were unfounded.

Many protesters had banners making light of the bone-chilling weather and calling for Putin to go. "Down with the cold, down with Putin," one banner said. Others declared: "They froze our democracy" and "We are frozen in solidarity."

FOR PUTIN

Police said 138,000 people attended the pro-Putin rally a few km (miles) away in Moscow, but reporters estimated the crowd was smaller than that by tens of thousands, and attendance at demonstrations in support of the former KGB spy has previously been swelled by the authorities ferrying in sympathisers by bus.

Teachers have said they came under pressure from trade unions to attend the pro-Putin rally.

"Trade union representatives called us together and said at least five to 10 people from each school had to go (to the Putin rally)," said Sergei Bebchuk, a 54-year-old headteacher who ignored the request and attended the opposition protest.

"I have something I believe in. We could not go there," he said, his daughter at his side with white ribbons in her hair.

Putin said Moscow's mayor had told him 190,000 attended the rally in his support there, and that while he did not rule out pressure had been applied, "to bring 134,000 or 190,000 people by applying pressure alone is impossible."

"It is totally obvious that people came to express their position. Their position is to support what we are doing. For me it is very important," Putin said. "I have said that I cannot work without it. I am really grateful."

At that pro-Putin rally, demonstrators carried posters saying "For Putin" with a check mark in a box next to his face. Another read "Putin led Russia out of civil war" and one said, "My children will live in Russia - I need Putin."

In keeping with Putin's warnings against revolutionary change and the anti-Western rhetoric he has employed in his campaign, the rally was billed as "anti-orange" - another reference to Ukraine, where Moscow has said Western-funded activists helped bring a pro-Western leader to power.

"My aim is to support the movement against the 'orange ones' - those America sends us to topple those in power and rock society," Kirill Domchenko, 25, a Moscow university student.

Putin in December accused the United States of encouraging opposition protests and said Western states were spending billions to influence Russian elections. He praised the 'anti-orange' demonstrators late on Friday and said "I share their views," Interfax reported.

MAINTAINING MOMENTUM

The main opposition protests were suspended over the long New Year holiday, when Russia comes to a halt. Opposition activists had been concerned that the protests might lose momentum after Putin, 59, ignored all their main demands.

The protesters want a rerun of the parliamentary election, the release of prisoners jailed for political reasons, dismissal of the central election commission chief, the registration of more political parties and other political reforms.

The Kremlin has promised to let more parties contest elections but has rejected its main demands. Ryzhkov told the crowd protests must continue until Putin gives in, and another protest is planned for one week before the election.

Crowds of a few hundred turned out to protest against Putin in other cities across Russia, although the number protesting is still only a small part of the more than 140 million population.

In the Pacific port city of Vladivostok, demonstrators carried banners reading "Putin - out!" and "The crook is making for the throne again ... send him to a prison bunk."

The protesters are angered by allegations of fraud in a December 4 parliamentary election that was won by Putin's ruling United Russia party, albeit with a reduced majority in the lower house.

The plan by Putin and Medvedev to swap jobs after the presidential election is viewed by opposition supporters as openly flouting democracy.

"We are not sheep or cattle. We deserve respect," said Marat Yafyasov, 54, a lawyer who travelled from Yaroslavl, 250 km (155 miles) northeast of Moscow, to join the protest.

"We are out in the cold because we can't let this moment go, we have to keep the protest going."

- Reuters

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What's next for Russian protests? - msnbc.com

                                         

MOSCOW -- Saturday's protest was doubly impressive in that so many could have made excuses not to show. It was snowing, it was bone-chillingly cold, and it was the beginning of the Russian holiday season. Anywhere from 50,000 to 100,000 people, by my guess, filled up Avenue Prof. (Andrei) Sakharov (the USSR's once infamous dissident) in Moscow and it must have signaled to the Kremlin "observers," hiding behind tinted glass in four-wheel drive vehicles beyond the police barriers, that the unprecedented protest two weeks earlier had been no fluke.

But where does it go from here? Will this protest movement -- marked so far by restraint, humor and non-violence -- turn a Russian winter into a "Russian Spring"?

There are already ominous signs.

Alexander Aleshkin / Getty Images

Demonstrators take part in a mass anti-Putin rally on Saturday in Moscow.

Alexei Navalny, a passionate orator who until recently was known only to social networkers as an anti-corruption blogger, is quickly emerging as the new face of the anti-Vladimir Putin opposition. He roused the crowd on Saturday, declaring that if the movement weren't peaceful it could easily have taken over the Kremlin with the Russian crowd at hand. But, he warned, that could change if Putin connived to steal the NEXT presidential election, in March. "If these crooks and thieves go on cheating us, if they continue telling lies and stealing from us, we will take what belongs to us with our own hands.''

This wasn't just crowd-pleasing rhetoric coming from an aspiring leader. Many protesters, like 30-year-old Vasily Gnuchev, a normally quiet, self-employed architect, see red when faced with the possibility, even likelihood, that Prime Minster Vladimir Putin will not only win the presidency but rule for yet another two six-year terms.

"It's absolutely unacceptable that the man who's in power [already] for 12 years will be here for 12 years more!," Vasily spurted out in a rented apartment in dire need of repairs, literally red with anger. "We don't want another revolution, or bloodshed, but if Putin is going to win then there may be a "Russian Spring -- not an Arab Spring but a Russian one."

Putin, after the initial shock of barely scraping by in the parliamentary elections of Dec. 4, said nothing about the protests for a week,  then treated them with contempt. He finally realized he had to engage, and (through the usual conduit of Russian President cum Putin spokesman Dmitri Medvedev) announced on Thursday a set of positive political reforms, none of which would take effect until the next cycle, in six years.

Which makes Vasily see red ... again. ''We don't have six years to wait. And we know what will come of it in six years. It will be blah- blah-blah and nothing else!'

Some of my Russian analyst friends in Moscow are quick to point out that Russia is not the Middle East. That the Arab Spring happened to dictatorships based on violence and repression. And that Russia -- with all of its abuses -- is still an open society with a market economy and that the "Freedom Genie" can never be put back into the bottle.

Fyodor Lukyanov is one of President Medvedev's advisers on human rights who took the courageous step this week of calling for the annulment and repeat of the Dec. 4  parliamentary elections. He believes the only way Putin can win back his popularity is by running a squeaky clean and transparent campaign for president.

"Putin may go to a second round -- that's OK,  he can still beat any of the contenders in the second round,'' says Lukyanov. ''And he will have his legitimacy back -- maybe not in the amount he had 10 years ago, but a big part of the population believes that Putin is much better than anybody else.''

For many protesters, the animosity goes way beyond Putin the candidate. Vasily's father, Fyodor, now 50, says he watched in shock as the Soviet Union fell 20 years ago, then in horror as Russia passed, rudderless, through a decade of economic collapse and war. And then came Putin. Stability. Prosperity. "All over the country there was a scream of joy when we got rid of this alcoholic, Yeltsin. We finally saw a man who was sane, who was physically fit, and he wasn't reading from his notes," recalled the older Gnuchev.

His son Vasily says he was too young to remember the bad old days of democratic Russia. But he prospered under Putin, and always felt free. And that's the real problem. The Putin regime's reportedly widespread electoral fraud pulled the rug from under a whole generation who believed in their leader, who believed in Putinism. "Now we see that everything is a lie," Vasily explained. "The Kremlin just stole our votes  -- it's just incompatible with the picture of the world we grew up in."

It's that humiliation -- indeed, violation -- mixed with anger that seems to drive many Russian, middle-class protesters into the streets -- even when the elements are conspiring against them -- and will keep the pressure on Putin, with promises of more protests to come. But what if this "people power" movement really blossoms, only to be thwarted yet again, not in a free and fair election come March, but by another brazen, Putin-led ploy to retain power?

Lukyanov admits he's "cautiously pessimistic." "Unfortunately," he told me, "Russian and Soviet and pre-Soviet history shows us that those in power are capable of making almost any mistakes and stupidities."

On the one hand,  "Russian people" determined to take back the country they feel they've lost, and on the other,  "Russian power" equally determined to hold onto it. What's next? "It's absolutely impossible to predict the course of events in 2012," offered Lukyanov.

Whatever happens, those two driving forces of 2012 look to be on a collision course.

 

Jim Maceda is an NBC News correspondent based in London who has covered the Soviet Union and Russia since the 1980s.

Putin accuses US of sparking election unrest - Daily Nation

World

Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin speaks in Moscow, on December 8, 2011, during a meeting of Coordinating Committee of the Popular Front, a civic movement connected with Putin?s United Russia party. Putin accused the United States of provoking the disputes over the Russian elections, adding that no-one wanted to see chaos break out in the country. AFP PHOTO 

In Summary

MOSCOW, Thursday
Prime Minister Vladimir Putin today accused the United States of provoking the post-election protests in Russia, warning that demonstrators who broke the law would be punished.

Around 1,000 people have been arrested in three days of protests in Moscow alleging mass fraud in the parliamentary polls and organisers defiantly vowed to stage a mass protest in Moscow at the weekend.

Lashed out

In his first public comments on the demonstrations, Putin lashed out at US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton who he said had criticised Sunday's elections before even reading the reports of international monitors.

Clinton had complained the polls were neither free nor fair, a concern echoed by the last president of the USSR Mikhail Gorbachev who said they should be re-run due to ballot rigging.

The US criticism "had set the tone for some people inside the country and given a signal," Putin said. "They heard the signal and with the support of the US State Department started active work."

In the run-up to the election, Putin had already accused the West of funding Russian NGOs with the aim of questioning the validity of the elections.

Independent poll monitoring group Golos said it had subsequently been subjected to harassment by the authorities. (AFP)

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Russia votes: Vladimir Putin dealt an election blow - Vancouver Sun

MOSCOW - Vladimir Putin's ruling party clung to a much reduced majority in parliament on Monday after an election that showed growing weariness with the man who has dominated Russia for more than a decade and plans to return to the presidency next year.

President Dmitry Medvedev said the election was "fair, honest and democratic," but European monitors said the field was slanted in favour of Putin's United Russia and the vote marred by apparent manipulations including ballot box stuffing.

In the biggest electoral setback for Putin since he rose to power in 1999, the Central Election Commission said United Russia was set to lose 77 seats in the State Duma and end up with 238, a slim majority in the 450-member lower house.

Medvedev, who led the party into the election at Putin's behest, said voters had sent "a signal to the authorities" and hinted officials in regions where the party did badly could face dismissal if they do not shape up.

"United Russia did not do too well in a series of regions, but not because people refuse to trust the party itself... but simply because local functionaries irritate them," he said. "They look and they say ... if that's United Russia, there's no way I'm going to vote for him."

Opponents said even United Russia's official result - just under 50 percent of the vote - was inflated by fraud. The leader of the Communist Party, on target to increase its representation from 57 to 92 seats, said the election was the dirtiest since the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991.

Although Putin is still likely to win a presidential election next March, Sunday's result could dent the authority of the man who has ruled for 12 years with a mixture of hardline security policies, political acumen and showmanship but who was booed and jeered after a martial arts bout last month.

"Many Russians voted against the system and Putin is the head of that system," said Stanislav Kucher, a commentator with Kommersant FM radio station.

"Putin has a very difficult choice. To survive politically he needs to reform but he can only reform if he gets rid of many vested interests in the ruling circle. To stay as he is means the opposite of political survival."

Putin has cultivated a tough man image with stunts such as riding a horse bare chested, tracking tigers and flying a fighter plane. But the public appears to have wearied of the antics and his popularity, while still high, has fallen.

Many voters, fed up with widespread corruption, refer to United Russia as the party of swindlers and thieves and resent the huge gap between the rich and poor. Some fear Putin's return to the presidency may herald economic and political stagnation.

PUTIN SAYS OPTIMAL RESULT

Putin and Medvedev, the protege he ushered into the Kremlin when he faced a legal bar on a third consecutive term in 2008, made a brief appearance at a subdued meeting at United Russia headquarters late on Sunday.

Medvedev said United Russia, which had previously held a two thirds majority allowing it to change the constitution without opposition support, was prepared to forge alliances on certain issues to secure backing for legislation.

"This is an optimal result which reflects the real situation in the country," Putin, 59, said. "Based on this result we can guarantee stable development of our country."

But there was little to cheer for the man who has dominated Russian politics since he became acting president when Boris Yeltsin quit at the end of 1999 and was elected head of state months later.

His path back to the presidency may now be a little more complicated, with signs growing that voters feel cheated by his decision to swap jobs with Medvedev next year and dismayed by the prospect of more than a decade more of one man at the helm.

COMMUNIST GAINS

The Communists made big gains and officials projections put the left-leaning Just Russia on 64 Duma seats, up from 38, and Vladimir Zhirinovsky's nationalist LDPR on 56, up from 40.

Many of the votes were cast in protest against United Russia rather than in support of communist ideals because the Party is seen by some Russians as the only credible opposition force.

"I voted against United Russia to support some kind of opposition in the country," said Tamara Alexandrovna, a pensioner in Moscow. "I've seen a one-party system and we cannot go back to that."

The other three parties on the ballot, including the liberal Yabloko, fell short of the 5 percent threshold needed to gain even token representation in the Duma.

A prominent party of Kremlin foes led by Putin's first-term prime minister, Mikhail Kasyanov, was barred from the ballot in advance because it was denied registration earlier this year.

Opposition parties complained of election irregularities in several parts of a country spanning 9,000 km (5,600 miles).

The websites of a Western-financed electoral watchdog and at least two liberal media outlets were taken down by hacker attacks that some said were engineered by state authorities to silence allegations of violations.

Police detained at least 150 people protesting in Moscow and St Petersburg on Sunday against Putin's political system and alleged election fraud.

Opposition parties say the election was unfair from the start because of authorities' support for United Russia with cash, influence and television air time. International observers added weight to those claims.

Election preparations "were marked by a convergence of the state and the governing party, limited political competition and a lack of fairness," observers from the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) and the Council of Europe's parliamentary assembly said.

The vote count "was characterized by frequent procedural violations and instances of apparent manipulation, including several serious indications of ballot box stuffing," the monitors said in their preliminary report.

"The country has never seen such a dirty election," said Communist Party leader Gennady Zyuganov, who dismissed the official results as "theft on an especially grand scale."

Zyuganov said police had barred Communist monitors from several polling stations and "some ended up in hospital with broken bones." He said some ballot boxes were stuffed before voting began.

Medvedev said alleged violations must be investigated but asserted that there was no major fraud, saying, "All this talk about unrestrained use of administrative influence...where did this happen?"

He said United Russia's result reflected "exactly" its level of support among Russians - "no more, no less. And in this sense the election was fair, honest and democratic."

The result is a blow for Medvedev, whose legitimacy to become prime minister in a planned job swap with Putin after the presidential vote could now be in question.

Putin has as yet no serious personal rivals as Russia's leader. He remains the ultimate arbiter between the clans which control the world's biggest energy producer.

Russian stock and currency markets disregarded the election results at Monday's opening, remaining hostage to global financial developments and the performance of companies.

"In our world the big news is that Russian companies are actually paying dividends - that's more important than a result that wasn't a surprise," said Roland Nash, chief strategist at hedge fund Verno Capital in Moscow.

Russian President Putin to visit Israel, West Bank and Jordan - Los Angeles Times

JERUSALEM -- Russian President Vladimir Putin will land in Israel on an official visit Monday, making Israel one of the first countries he will visit since his recent election. The last visit of a Russian leader to Israel was canceled at the last minute early last year, when Dmitry Medvedev halted his plans because of a strike of Israel's foreign ministry staff. Putin himself last visited in 2005.

Israel and Russia have a wide range of bilateral issues to discuss, including tourism and cultural and business cooperation, partly because of the country's 1-million-strong Russian-speaking community, many of whom emigrated to Israel over the last two decades. A delegation of 300 political leaders, businessmen and journalists will accompany the president.

The two nations also cooperate on matters of more strategic nature such as military technology. At the same time, Russia is an ally of Israeli enemies Iran and Syria. With Russian and Israeli interests at odds on these two nations, a delicate balance act will be required during Putin's visit.

On bilateral issues, the two countries enjoy an "ongoing honeymoon," according to an analysis by Haaretz's Barak Ravid (in Hebrew) but Russia's goings-on in the Middle East harm Israel's interests at times and unnamed foreign ministry sources told Ravid this reality is unlikely to change anytime soon.

Russia may buy $50 million worth of Israeli drones and accompanying command and control centers, according to recent Russian reports. The two countries may also soon begin joint development of a new unmanned aerial vehicle. Israel may try to use this interest in an attempt to sway the super-power's resistance on regional issues, as well as Russia's interest in helping Israel develop its natural gas fields in the Mediterranean. Russia may also be interested in tapping into an emerging alliance between Israel, Greece and Cyprus to offset tensions with Turkey.

"Russia's standing in the Middle East was undermined by the Arab Spring," writes Zvi Magen, former Israeli ambassador to Russia and currently a research fellow at the Institute for National Security Studies, a Tel-Aviv-based think tank. Russia seeks new levers of influence to replace the ones it has lost, Magen writes, stressing that these would not, however, undo Russia's good relations with Iran and Syria.

Another commentator, Adar Primor, wrote that despite the "unexpected alliance" between Russia and Israel, the first won't change its basic policies in the Middle East and the latter won't exchange its alliance with the United States, "certainly not if Netanyahu's friend Mitt Romney, who has called Russia 'America's top geopolitical adversary' wins the November presidential elections."

Meretz, a left-wing movement and member of the parliamentary opposition, has called for a demonstration outside Prime Minister Netanyahu's residence Monday, about the time of his working luncheon with Putin, to protest what they called on their Facebook page "Putin's help of the massacre in Syria." Lawmakers attended a recent rally with a similar message in Tel Aviv and the U.S. Jewish daily, Forward, recently published an editorial urging Israel to "disinvite Putin" on these grounds and others.

Russian Israelis casting absentee ballots in Russia's recent presidential election were divided on their support for Putin.

During the visit, Putin will attend the unveiling of a monument, a tribute to the Red Army and the Soviet Union's role in defeating Nazi Germany and liberating the death camps in World War II. Throughout Monday, he will hold working meetings with Netanyahu and President Shimon Peres, who will also host a special evening for Putin.

The presidents will discuss strengthening relations between the two countries, the peace process, the Iranian nuclear issue, the Syria crisis and the wider Middle East, according to Peres' office.

The Russian president will also visit the West Bank, where he will inaugurate the Russian Cultural Center in Bethlehem and meet Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas on Tuesday. The two are expected to discuss issues relating to the peace process, especially given Russia's membership on the United Nations' Security Council, according to press reports.

The Russian delegation will then continue to Jordan.

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 -- Batsheva Sobelman

Photo: Russia's President Vladimir Putin. Credit: Alexey Druzhinin / AFP/Getty Images

 

'Alpha-male' Putin battles to preserve macho magic - NDTV

Moscow:  It had all the hallmarks of the hard man stunts that have become Vladimir Putin's trademark. Speed, a dangerous winter sport and excitement amid the campaign for looming Presidential elections.

But when the Russian strongman was pushed down the track in a two man bobsleigh his sled failed to gather enough speed to climb an incline in the training run and instead of whizzing down to the end of the track it slid embarrassingly and somewhat dangerously backwards and downhill towards the start.

"The first time, the bobsleigh with the Prime Minister did not make it to the finish," the government said in a laconic statement. "The second attempt was successful and Vladimir Putin made it to the end of the course."

The February 16 episode ahead of Mr Putin's candidacy in March 4 Presidential elections symbolized how the unusual stunts that Mr Putin had used with great effectiveness for most of his 12-year domination of Russia no longer had the same magic effect as before.

In his eight years as President and four years as Prime Minister, he co-piloted a fighter jet to war-torn Chechnya, stroked a polar bear, tranquilized a tiger, drove a Formula 1 racing car, dived to the bottom of a lake in a mini-submarine and explored Siberia with a naked torso on a horse.

But facing the new challenge of an outburst of protests and fast approaching 60, his hard man antics appear to be wearing thin in an increasingly critical Russia where his every move is scrutinized on the Internet.

"Mr Putin was the demonstrative, charismatic alpha-male," said Olga Mefodyeva, a PR expert at the Center for Political Technologies. "But this image started to get old and an inertia appeared that lost contact with reality."

"It is all about exploiting past achievements but while there are no new creative decisions, things get repeated and recycled," she said.

Mr Putin's outings used to proceed with almost routine smoothness but a taboo appeared to be broken in 2010 when rock musician Yuri Shevchuk challenged him at a charity event about a "growing protest electorate" in the country.

The premier that summer still proceeded to take an extraordinary working holiday in Russia's Far East and Siberia with loyal media in tow, watching whales from an inflatable dinghy on choppy seas and then driving himself across Siberia in a yellow Lada.

One journalist asked him on that trip: "Vladimir Vladimirovich, why such extremes? You understand that this is dangerous?" He quipped back: "Living in general is dangerous."

But the main stunt last summer -- a diving expedition in southern Russia -- backfired horribly after Mr Putin appeared to miraculously "discover" ancient Greek urns. "Treasure!" he told the media after returning ashore in a wet suit.

His spokesman later admitted the urns had been placed there on purpose, sparking a frenzy of mockery among opposition bloggers. "We demand honest amphorae!" said one slogan, playing on a call for honest elections.
On November 20, Mr Putin took to the ring to congratulate the winner of a bloody no-holds-barred fight in Moscow, at a venue packed with die-hard grapple fans whom he would normally see as his natural constituency.

But when he addressed the crowd he was booed and heckled, an unexpected episode broadcast on state television which is now seen as heralding the opposition protests that broke out after December 4 Parliamentary elections.

Gleb Pavlovsky, a former Kremlin adviser who heads the Fund for Effective Policy, said that in the early years of his rule Mr Putin's action man image had contrasted favorably with the era of his erratic predecessor Boris Yeltsin.

"There was a demand for muscles and the demonstration of a strong, active President. And he carefully and intentionally satisfied this."

"Now he carries on doing this because he likes it and it once gave him success. This no longer entertains the people. But he has not paid attention to this," said Gleb Pavlovsky.

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Russia bans liberal opposition candidate - Deutsche Welle

Russian electoral officials on Friday disqualified the only liberal challenger to Vladimir Putin in presidential elections on March 4, sparking allegations that the poll's legitimacy had been undermined.

The central elections commission said it could not accept Grigory Yavlinsky's candidacy because it found nearly a quarter of the registration signatures were either photocopies or forgeries.

"I am sad to announce that we will not able to register Yavlinsky as a candidate," election commission member Sergei Danilenko said at a special hearing.

Russia requires all presidential hopefuls whose parties did not make it into parliament to gather two million signatures in order to get on the ballot. That number is twice what was required before then-president Vladimir Putin changed the rules in 2004, tightening his grip on power. In 2007 he shortened the time candidates could rally their support from three months to one.

Bildunterschrift: Großansicht des Bildes mit der Bildunterschrift:  Putin is all but certain to win the election on March 4Sergei Mitrokhin, chairman of the liberal Yabloko (Apple) party that Yavlinsky founded in 1993, accused Putin of ordering the disqualification and said the electoral commission's decision "undermines the legitimacy of the vote."

Party's role as monitor

 

Mitrokhin said the authorities were eager to prevent Yabloko from monitoring the vote, a right granted to participants, after it sent thousands of observers to December's parliamentary elections.

 

However, Putin's spokesman said Mitrokhin's comments were unfair. "If one of the candidates fails to collect the required number of signatures, this does not mean you can make claims about the vote's illegitimacy," Dmitry Peskov told the state news agency RIA Novosti.

 

Yavlinsky, a 59-year-old economist who ran for the presidency in 1996 and 2000 but failed to gain more than 10 percent of the vote, had virtually no chance of winning the election. Analysts expect Putin, currently prime minister, to win easily.

 

Author: Andrew Bowen, Richard Connor (AFP, Reuters)
Editor: Nancy Isenson

Men Held Over 'Plot To Kill Putin' - Sky News

Vladimir Putin at an election rally in Moscow last week

6:32am UK, Monday February 27, 2012

Suspects accused of attempting to assassinate Vladimir Putin have been arrested by Russian and Ukrainian special services, according to state TV.

Channel One said the group were plotting to kill the Prime Minister in Moscow immediately after the presidential election on March 4.

The arrests were reportedly made in Ukraine's Black Sea port city of Odessa.

The claims were confirmed by Mr Putin's spokesman Dmitry Peskov to the ITAR-Tass news agency but he has refused to make further comment.

Russian and Ukrainian special services also declined to comment.

Earlier this month, the Ukrainian Security Service said had it detained three Russian citizens on terrorist charges in Odessa on February 4.

It is not yet clear whether those suspects were linked to the anti-Putin plot.

Those arrests followed an accidental explosion that happened while they were trying to manufacture explosives at a rented apartment, the authorities said.

The reports emerged after at least 30,000 anti-Putin demonstrators formed a human chain in the capital for the last big protest before voting takes place.

Putin Avoids Questions on Ban to End US Adoptions of Russian Children - ABC News (blog)

 MOSCOW – Russian President Vladimir Putin dodged numerous questions Thursday about efforts of some Russian lawmakers to cut off U.S. adoptions of Russian children.

At his first major news conference since his return to the presidency in May, Putin seemed to sidestep the adoption issue, repeatedly telling reporters that he had yet to study the ban in depth.

"I do not know details. I have not seen the text. I need to take a look at it. I will do that today or tomorrow," he said at one point.

"I will make a decision depending on what is written there," he continued, declining to say if he would sign such a ban.

Russia is the third most-popular country for Americans looking to adopt children. About 45,000 Russian children have been adopted by U.S. parents since the fall of the Soviet Union at the end of 1991. Putin said he believed that most Americans trying to adopt children were "decent and honest people."

Putin did, however, express strong support for the broader bill that is making its way through the lower house of parliament, which, by imposing reciprocal sanctions on American human rights abusers, including those accused of abusing Russian adopted children, signals retaliation for a set of human rights sanctions passed by the U.S. Congress earlier  this month.

Putin blasted U.S. courts for treating those accused of abusing Russian adopted children too leniently, and criticized U.S. officials for failing to properly set up a new adoption agreement between the two countries that would give Russian officials access to adopted children who were allegedly abused.

Members of the ruling United Russia Party added the adoption ban as an amendment before a second reading of the bill on Wednesday. It faces a third and final reading as early as Friday, but it still requires the support of the upper house of parliament, as well as Putin's signature before it becomes law.

Since its introduction, several human rights advocates have complained that the measure is playing politics with the lives of orphans. Russia's Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov came out against the adoption ban earlier this week, calling it "wrong" and adding that foreign adoption was a legal right. The country's education minister also voiced his opposition.

Russia's children's ombudsman Pavel Astakhav, however, said he supported the ban, adding that he believes it should have happened years ago.

At today's news conference, meanwhile, Putin lashed out at the United States for imposing the human rights sanctions, known as the Magnitsky Act. Putin said the act — which would refuse visas and freeze the U.S. assets of Russians accused of human rights violations — "poisoned" U.S.-Russian relations, and was just another effort by Congress to pass anti-Russian legislation.  "If they spank us, we must reply, otherwise they will keep spanking us."

At one point Putin chastised a Russian journalist who challenged his support for the adoption sanctions, asking him why he would support sending Russian children overseas, and to the United States in particular.

"Are you a sadomasochist?" Putin asked him.

The news conference was a marathon, lasting more than four hours. It became unruly at times, with journalists hollering and waving banners, signs, scarves, even balloons, to try to get the attention of Putin's spokesman, who picked the questioners. Foreign journalists were invited, but only a few were selected to ask questions. Even so, it was the Russian journalists who asked most often about the possible adoption ban.

One female journalist fawned over the president, calling him "handsome" and "energetic," then asked where the rumors of his poor health were coming from. Putin dismissed the rumors, saying they were spread by his political opponents.

Another journalist asked about Putin's family, usually a taboo topic considered off-limits. The president answered tersely, saying that his daughters were living, working and studying in Moscow, and doing well. Putin is famously protective of his family. No photos of his adult daughters can be found, even on the Internet.

"I am proud of them," he said, ignoring the part of the question that asked if he was a grandfather yet.

A number of questions were uncharacteristically pointed, including ones about human rights in Russia and judiciary independence. Putin denied that he had ever sought to influence a court ruling, and often compared reports of abuses in Russia to similar reports in the United States.

Asked by a Russian newspaper reporter about how he built an "authoritarian regime," Putin was put on the defensive, saying he did not agree with that characterization.

Putin was also asked whether Russia was becoming diplomatically isolated because of its continued support for Syrian President Bashar al-Assad. He denied that was the case and reiterated Russia's opposition to international intervention. He pointed to the post-liberation chaos in Libya as an example of why foreign interference is not a good idea. He said he was more worried about what happens in Syria after Assad leaves than if he stays.

The press conference ended when a Russian journalist asked Putin to sign a birthday card for his daughter. The president whipped out a pen and said he was happy to oblige.

Tens of thousands of Russian protesters want Vladimir Putin out - Los Angeles Times

Tens of thousands of people fed up with Vladimir Putin's domination of Russian politics and his perceived arrogance jammed one of Moscow's broadest avenues for a giant protest, vowing to keep building the pressure until the longtime leader is driven from power.

"Russia without Putin!" the crowd chanted Saturday as it protested alleged fraud during recent parliamentary elections that saw Prime Minister Putin's United Russia party garner nearly 50% of the vote.

The demonstration, the largest in Russia's capital since the breakup of the Soviet Union in the early 1990s, was a direct rebuff of Putin and President Dmitry Medvedev, both of whom in recent days had sought to mollify critics by promising political reforms.

PHOTOS: Thousands protest in Moscow

Many in the Moscow crowd said they were tired of the autocratic attitude of Putin, who served as president for eight years beginning in 2000 and is seeking a return to the presidency in an election scheduled for March. Speakers at a central platform, their remarks booming out from huge screens placed along the protest route, ratcheted up their rhetoric and declared their intent to build on their momentum.

"In 2012, we will clear the Kremlin of swindlers and thieves," vowed opposition leader Garry Kasparov, a former world chess champion.

The rally was held along Sakharov Avenue, named for dissident nuclear scientist Andrei Sakharov. Thousands of people also protested in cities and towns across Russia.

"This movement shows us that the country has changed," said Vladimir Lukin, a presidential envoy on human rights, who came to the Moscow rally as an observer. "The authorities at last realized how many people want changes."

Those in attendance included young and old, who sacrificed Christmas shopping, family brunches, skating and skiing excursions to join the latest vote fraud protest in what some have begun calling the "Russian Winter," an allusion to the "Arab Spring" in North Africa and the Middle East.

Winds of change have been blowing through the country since the Dec. 4 polling, which was marred by allegations of foul play. Protests began a day later and were at first forcefully dispersed by police, who arrested several hundred activists.

On Dec. 10, a peaceful protest in Moscow drew a then-unprecedented crowd of about 60,000, most of them young adults and middle-class people who previously had shunned politics.

Since then, the results of the parliamentary vote have been annulled at 21 polling stations and investigations continue. The Presidential Council on Human Rights demanded Friday the resignation of the chairman of the central election commission, a staunch Putin ally.

On Saturday, riot police stayed on side streets and did not display weapons or shields.

As the crowd formed along the mile-long protest route, one police officer said to a colleague: "If they decide to march on, can we contain them, do you think?" The other shook his head in disbelief and said: "We won't last a quarter of an hour with this crowd. We will need an army to hold them."

Activists appeared especially disturbed by recent remarks from Putin in which he compared the white ribbons worn by street protesters to condoms, and a literary allusion in which he portrayed himself as a wise and powerful python from Rudyard Kipling's "The Jungle Book" and protesters as disorganized and cowardly monkeys.

Key Kremlin official Vladislav Surkov has sought to repair the damage by saying that protesters represent "the better part of our society."

"They can't be condescendingly brushed away," he said Thursday in an interview with the pro-Kremlin daily Izvestia, acknowledging that "the tectonic structures of the society have started to move."

Nonetheless, the Saturday protest took on a new level of vitriol, with protesters wearing white ribbons, badges, balloons and more. One man carried an image of Putin with a huge condom wrapped around his neck. Others carried posters of him next to Moammar Kadafi and Kim Jong Il.

Several speakers, appearing emboldened by the crowd size, which protest leaders estimated at 120,000 (the Moscow police estimate, in contrast, was 29,000), threatened to grab power if their demands were not met.

"We have enough people here to take the Kremlin … right away!" shouted blogger Alexei Navalny, who was released from jail Tuesday after a 15-day stay for his actions at previous protests.

"We won't do it now though, but if the swindlers and thieves continue robbing us and lying to us we will ourselves get back what belongs to us," said Navalny, who has become well known for taking on state-owned business giants Gazprom and Rosneft over alleged corruption.

"We don't want to scare anyone, but we believe that next year there will be a peaceful change of power and power will belong to … the people," he said to the loudest applause of the day.

Navalny promised 1 million protesters at future rallies, which he said would continue until the Kremlin gives in to the demands of the movement, including the immediate release of all political prisoners and the voiding of the tainted election results. Opposition leaders also called for new elections and said Putin should not receive a single vote in the March voting.

Participant Vladimir Mikhailov, 47, a medical equipment company director from northern Russia, said he was overwhelmed by the size of the rally in Moscow.

"I am so happy to see so many people here who are not afraid to come and protest against lawlessness and corruption," said Mikhailov, who dropped his United Russia membership just before the parliament vote.

"Being here makes me 20 years younger as we witness such tremendous change in social and political awareness compared with what we saw over the last two decades," said Russian democratic movement veteran Viktor Sheinis. "It will really be a cold shower and a huge loss for the country if this movement doesn't achieve anything soon and its tremendous drive and enthusiasm is eventually wasted."

"That," said Sheinis, coauthor of the 1993 Russian Constitution, "is what the authorities are counting on."

PHOTOS: Thousands protest in Moscow

sergei.loiko@latimes.com

Vladimir Putin flies to flood-hit southern Russia as death toll rises - The Guardian

Russian floods hit Krasnodar region. Link to this video

Vladimir Putin has ordered investigators to find out if enough was done to prevent 144 people being killed in floods in southern Russia after flying to the region to deal with the first big disaster of his new presidency.

Putin, who was criticised for his slow reaction to disasters earlier in his career, also ordered money to be put aside for building new homes for victims of the worst flooding in decades in Krasnodar, a relatively rich area with thriving agriculture and tourism industries.

An interior ministry crisis centre said 144 people had been killed in the flooding after two months' average rainfall fell in a few hours on Friday night. Most of the dead were drowned, many of them elderly people caught unawares as they slept.

Police said survivors climbed into trees and on to roofs to stay above the waters, which flooded entire ground floors of some buildings and created driving torrents in some streets.

The Black Sea port of Novorossiisk, the main outlet for wheat from the world's second largest exporter and a key loading port for crude oil from the world's largest producer, could resume loadings on Sunday, port sources said.

But the consequences of the flash flood could be more lasting for Putin, although he moved swiftly on Saturday to show he was on top of the rescue effort.

Putin and the regional governor surveyed the flood zone from a helicopter and bumped over a country road in a minibus with the head of the Krymsk district, discussing the disaster response in the town worst hit by the flooding.

"I have asked the leadership of the [federal] investigative committee to come down. The investigative committee will check the actions of all the authorities – how the notice was given, how it could have been given, how it should have been given and who acted how," Putin was quoted as saying by the Itar-Tass news agency late on Saturday at a meeting in Krymsk.

"I ask you to co-operate," Putin added.

It was the first major disaster in Russia since he returned to the Kremlin for a third term as president after a four-year interlude as prime minister.

The former KGB spy, 59, has struggled increasingly to project his customary image of mastery since the outbreak of protests against his rule last December.

In his 12 years in power, both as president and prime minister, Russia has been plagued by natural and manmade disasters that have laid bare a longstanding shortfall in investment and management for Russia's transport and infrastructure.

These include deadly forest fires in 2010 and the sinking of the Kursk nuclear submarine in 2000, which killed 118 sailors and officers. Putin was accused of responding slowly to the Kursk disaster because attempts by foreign rescue teams to save the sailors were initially not allowed.

Putin on Saturday ordered the emergencies ministry to check a reservoir near Krymsk. The state water resource agency has rejected suggestions by residents that a release of water from a nearby reservoir was responsible for the severe flooding in Krymsk.

The flooding followed a month of rain which worsened on Friday night but was expected to stop on Monday. It damaged thousands of homes, forcing survivors to take shelter in tent camps set up outside Krymsk by emergency services teams.

The Interfax news agency reported that the road from Novorossiisk to the popular nearby Black Sea resort of Gelendzhik was being cleared but transport, including rail traffic, had largely collapsed in the region.

Two people were detained in the Krymsk area for looting, it said.