Thousands protest against Putin in Moscow

[Bosonic]

Source: AP

Several thousand people have protested in Moscow against Prime Minister Vladimir Putin and his party, which won the largest share of a parliamentary election that observers said was rigged.

It was perhaps the largest opposition rally in years and ended with police detaining some of the activists.

A group of several hundred then marched toward the Central Elections Commission near the Kremlin, but were stopped by riot police and taken away in buses.

Estimates of the number of protesters Monday night ranged from 5,000 to 10,000. They chanted "Russia without Putin."

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[Lint Head]

1. Wonder if they will use pepper spray?

[No Elephants]

2. Thousands in Moscow, hundreds of thousands in Tahrir Square, 42 marched to D.C.

We've proven that we deserve whatever crap is dished out to us.

[pampango]

3. UK Guardian: Putin shaken by United Russia's poor election performance

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2011/dec/05/putin-united-russia-election

Vladimir Putin was uncharacteristically fidgety as he spoke to supporters at the United Russia headquarters, as polls showed that voters had delivered a harsh blow to his party in parliamentary elections that were widely seen as a test of his personal popularity.

"I want to speak to all citizens of the country and, above all, those who voted for the party," Putin said, his eyebrows twitching and his gaze wandering. "Despite a rather complicated period in the life of our government, despite the crisis, despite the fact that responsibility for these difficulties has laid and lies on the shoulders of the party, people – our voters, our citizens – kept us as the leading political party in the country."

It was hardly the blustering rallying cry for which Putin has become known.

Observers are now anxiously watching how the former KGB agent will react.

"On the one hand, there's the option of moving towards the style of Lukashenko," said Alexei Navalny, an anti-corruption activist who rallied a web-based movement to get people to vote for any party but United Russia. "On the other, they realise that the harsher they are, the worse the result."

As the Kremlin prepares for the presidential vote, analysts say it will face a force it hasn't had to reckon with for over a decade – a politically conscious public.