Vladimir Putin challenged: Thousands pour in to Russian streets in protests

Vladimir Putin challenged: Thousands pour in to Russian streets in protests

MOSCOW: Tens of thousands of protesters took to the streets of cities across Russia on Saturday to demand an end to Vladimir Putin's rule and complain about alleged election fraud in the biggest show of defiance since he took power more than a decade ago. 

Rallies were expected in dozens of cities, from Vladivostok on the Pacific coast to Kaliningrad nearly 7,400 km (4,600 miles) away in the west, mounting the biggest opposition protests since Putin came to power in 2000. 

In Vladivostok, a large port city where Putin's United Russia party was defeated by communists in last Sunday's parliamentary election, protesters held banners saying: "We are against mass falsifications!" and "The rats should go!" 

Organisers said about 1,000 people defied wintry weather to protest, but police put the number much lower. About 20 were detained in Khabarovsk, a city of almost 580,000 people about 30 km (19 miles) from the border with China, RIA news agency said. 

At least 15,000 people protested at Bolotnya Square, a large open space across the Moscow River from the Kremlin, and up to 1,500 gathered near a statue to Communist ideologist Karl Marx at Revolution Square, a few steps from the red walls of Russia's centre of power, witness said. 

Protesters in Moscow waved pictures of Putin and President Dmitry Medvedev declaring: "Guys, it's time to go." 

The rallies are a test of the opposition's ability to turn outrage over the Dec. 4 election, which it says was slanted in United Russia's favour, into a national protest movement that can undermine Putin's plan to return to the presidency in 2012. 

"This is history in the making for Russia. The people are coming out to demand justice for the first time in two decades, justice in the elections," a 41-year-old employee in the financial services sector, who gave his name only as Anton, said at Revolution Square. 

Like other protesters, he wore a white ribbon which he said symbolised the dissent of the people. At Bolotnaya Square people of all ages gathered, many carrying white carnations which they said was the symbol of their protest. 

CALLS FOR NEW ELECTIONS "I want new elections, not a revolution," said Ernst Kryavitsky, 75, a retired electrician dressed in a long brown coat and hat against the falling snow who was protesting even though he did not expect Putin to be ousted. 

 Vladimir Putin challenged: Thousands pour in to Russian streets in protests