Some 3,000 people rallied in the Russian enclave of Kaliningrad on Saturday to demand Prime Minister Vladimir Putin's resignation and a return to direct elections of regional governors. The gathering was considerably smaller than a protest of 10,000 people, one of the largest since Putin rose to power a decade ago, staged in the economically struggling region on Russia's Baltic coast in January.
"Putin resign!" protesters chanted at what both organisers and police said was a peaceful demonstration. Although Saturday's rally was relatively small, "this protest was more radical," Boris Nemtsov, a prominent critic of Russia's ruling elite, told Reuters by telephone. After the January demonstration, Putin scolded his ruling party, United Russia, for not paying more attention to ordinary voters.
Nemtsov dismissed police estimates that only 700-800 people took a part in the rally. Organisers, witnesses and a Reuters TV correspondent estimated that about 3,000 turned out. The protesters, from groups like Patriots of Russia, Communist Party of the Russian Federation, Solidarity and Other Russia, adopted a resolution demanding reinstatement of popular gubernatorial elections and resignation of Putin's government.
Comments
Comments are closed.