The police arrested dozens of Russians on Monday as thousands protested at Vladimir Putin’s return to the presidency in elections that Western monitors called “skewed”.
Some 14,000 people turned out in Pushkin Square in central Moscow chanting “Russia Yes! Putin No!” as hundreds of helmeted riot police stood by on guard. The Moscow police arrested dozens of protesters at a separate unsanctioned event near the central election commission while nearly 100 people were seen detained at an unauthorised meeting in Mr Putin’s native St. Petersburg.
Mr Putin won almost 64 per cent of Sunday’s ballot in easing his way back to the seat he held for the maximum two terms from 2000-2008 before his four-year stint as PM. His Communist Party challenger Gennady Zyuganov refused to recognise the results after winning just 17 per cent, while the billionaire Mikhail Prokho-rov sprang a surprise to finish third despite building his base from scratch.
Election-rigging claims have shadowed these polls just as they had done at the parliamentary elections in December that were followed by three months of the biggest anti-Kremlin demonstrations since Soviet times. Opposition leaders adopted a joint statement “demanding an end to political repression, an investigation into massive fraud and early parliamentary and presidential elections”. “Our aim is elections within the year. Otherwise the revolution is inevitable, even if we do not want revolution,” said Mr Putin’s former PM turned bitter Kremlin critic Mikhail Kasyanov.
Europe gave a wary and resigned greeting to Mr Putin’s Kremlin comeback, with Britain calling his victory “decisive”.