Putin files papers for presidency
Source: Agencies |
December 8, 2011, Thursday
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RUSSIAN Prime Minister Vladimir Putin filed candidacy papers for a March 4 presidential election yesterday while his opponents prepared for more protests over a parliamentary vote they say was rigged in his ruling party's favor.
Some 5,000 people turned out on Monday night for the largest opposition protest in Moscow in years, many chanting "Russia without Putin!" More than 300 were detained on Tuesday after a similar demonstration.
Putin submitted his registration documents in a brief visit to the Central Election Commission headquarters.
Registration as a candidate is a formal step towards what could be 12 more years in the top job for Putin. He was president from 2000 to 2008.
Voters bruised Putin on Sunday by sharply reducing his party's majority in the State Duma lower house.
United Russia received 49.4 percent of the votes, according to the election commission, down from 64.3 percent in 2007. It will have 238 seats in the 450-member Duma, down from 315 before the poll.
Protests over the election, fanned by fraud accusations that have spread on the Internet, have underscored anger at United Russia and unhappiness among some Russians at the prospect of Putin's almost certain return to the presidency.
Police swamped the center of the capital on Tuesday and said they detained more than 300 people on and around Triumph Square, where hundreds or even thousands more tried to protest. Another 250 were detained in St Petersburg.
Opposition groups said they were planning another protest in the same place last night despite earlier warnings from police and Putin's spokesman that unsanctioned protests would be stopped.
Reinforcements of 50,000 police and 2,000 troops were stationed in the capital ahead of the election and there are no plans for them to leave for the time being, a Moscow police spokesman said.
Buses of police were parked near the square yesterday.
The White House has expressed "serious concern" about the conduct of the election but Russia said US criticism was "unacceptable." European observers said the election was slanted in favor of United Russia and marred by indications of ballot-box stuffing.
US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, in Lithuania for an Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe meeting, suggested it was neither free nor fair.
Russia Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said Clinton's actions showed "disrespect" to the 56-member OSCE.
"This is not Hyde Park, this is not Triumph Square in Moscow, where speakers arrive to pour out their soul and then turn around and leave, not listening to others," he said, referring to London's Hyde Park and its famed "Speakers' Corner" and to the square in Moscow that was the site of Tuesday's protest.
Some 5,000 people turned out on Monday night for the largest opposition protest in Moscow in years, many chanting "Russia without Putin!" More than 300 were detained on Tuesday after a similar demonstration.
Putin submitted his registration documents in a brief visit to the Central Election Commission headquarters.
Registration as a candidate is a formal step towards what could be 12 more years in the top job for Putin. He was president from 2000 to 2008.
Voters bruised Putin on Sunday by sharply reducing his party's majority in the State Duma lower house.
United Russia received 49.4 percent of the votes, according to the election commission, down from 64.3 percent in 2007. It will have 238 seats in the 450-member Duma, down from 315 before the poll.
Protests over the election, fanned by fraud accusations that have spread on the Internet, have underscored anger at United Russia and unhappiness among some Russians at the prospect of Putin's almost certain return to the presidency.
Police swamped the center of the capital on Tuesday and said they detained more than 300 people on and around Triumph Square, where hundreds or even thousands more tried to protest. Another 250 were detained in St Petersburg.
Opposition groups said they were planning another protest in the same place last night despite earlier warnings from police and Putin's spokesman that unsanctioned protests would be stopped.
Reinforcements of 50,000 police and 2,000 troops were stationed in the capital ahead of the election and there are no plans for them to leave for the time being, a Moscow police spokesman said.
Buses of police were parked near the square yesterday.
The White House has expressed "serious concern" about the conduct of the election but Russia said US criticism was "unacceptable." European observers said the election was slanted in favor of United Russia and marred by indications of ballot-box stuffing.
US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, in Lithuania for an Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe meeting, suggested it was neither free nor fair.
Russia Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said Clinton's actions showed "disrespect" to the 56-member OSCE.
"This is not Hyde Park, this is not Triumph Square in Moscow, where speakers arrive to pour out their soul and then turn around and leave, not listening to others," he said, referring to London's Hyde Park and its famed "Speakers' Corner" and to the square in Moscow that was the site of Tuesday's protest.
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