\u201cSome individuals using people as an instrument for achieving their political goals, which are indeed dishonorable, is intolerable. And money for this comes from sources outside Russia,\u201d Chaika said in an interview to state-owned daily Rossiyskaya Gazeta.<\/p>\n
A journalist interviewing Chaika said that the protesters \u201chad insulted the authorities\u201d and asked whether they would be punished, prompting the general prosecutor to stress that\u00a0defamation decriminalisation<\/a>\u00a0\u201cdoesn\u2019t mean permissiveness and the lack of responsibility for slander and insult\u201d. The punishment is still \u201cquite sensible financially\u201d, Chaika warned.<\/p>\n Novaya Gazeta<\/a>\u00a0has asked Yuri Chaika to provide documents proving his allegations, along with explanations of what Russian legislation had been violated.<\/p>\n Chaika\u2019s allegations go in line with the Kremlin tendency to claim that opposition leaders and activists critical of Kremlin are financed “by the West in order to destabilise the situation in Russia”. Soon after the first rally on 10 December prime-minister Vladimir Putin said the protesters had been paid<\/a> to attend the rally. Many joked about the allegation at the second rally on 24 December, as they held\u00a0posters<\/a> \u00a0with\u00a0\u201cHillary Clinton paid us in kind\u201d, \u201cWhere\u2019s the money, State Department?\u201d, and \u201cI\u2019m here for free\u201d. Similar allegations were made\u00a0against Russia\u2019s leading election monitor —\u00a0GOLOS Association<\/a>\u00a0by the state-owned NTV channel, days before parliamentary elections.<\/p>\n
![\"\"](\"http:\/\/uncut.indexoncensorship.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/01\/Aleksei-Navalny-with-Mikh-005.jpeg\" "\\"Aleksei-Navalny-with-Mikh-005\\"")
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