{"id":92373,"date":"2012-03-06T15:00:01","date_gmt":"2012-03-06T15:00:01","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/uncut.indexoncensorship.org\/?p=4152"},"modified":"2012-03-06T15:00:01","modified_gmt":"2012-03-06T15:00:01","slug":"tens-of-thousands-call-putins-presidency-illegitimate-hundreds-arrested","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.indexoncensorship.org\/newsite02may\/?p=92373","title":{"rendered":"Tens of thousands call Putin\u2019s presidency illegitimate, hundreds arrested"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Vladimir<\/a>Two protest rallies were held in the centre of Moscow claimed\u00a0Vladimir Putin stole the Russian presidential election<\/a>.\u00a0The fact that the major protest was sanctioned by Moscow authorities didn\u2019t prevent the police from arresting hundreds of people in an enormous security operation that saw thousands of police officers and soldiers flood the centre of the capital.<\/p>\n

The sanctioned rally \u2013 on Pushkinskaya Square \u2013 gathered 15-20,000 people. Protesters demanded new and fair presidential and parliamentary elections, and repeated the requests of previous mass protests<\/a>: immediate release of political prisoners, registration of opposition parties, the resignation and investigation of head of Central Election Commission Vladimir Churov and new democratic election laws.<\/p>\n

Although President Medvedev proposed<\/a>\u00a0simplifying the registration process for political parties and restoring citizens’ rights to elect governors and mayors, opposition leaders remain sceptical, especially as the bill is vague and would not come into force for a couple of years. The Duma is due to pass the legislation after Putin takes presidential office, and opposition activists believe he might want to cancel the political reform.<\/p>\n

People at Pushkinskaya didn\u2019t seem to trust neither Medvedev or Putin. \u201cWe are the power\u201d, they chanted, \u201cRussia without Putin\u201d and \u201cA thief must be in prison, not in Kremlin\u201d. Supported by several hundred reporters, Left Front movement leader Sergey Udaltsov said from the stage that he would stay in the square “until Putin leaves”. Soon after the rally ended many key opposition leaders Alexey Navalny, Ilya Yashin and Udaltsov himself were arrested. Activist and Duma Deputy Advisor Alena Popova broke her arm after police pushed her to the ground.<\/p>\n

\"Rally<\/a>The other rally was unsanctioned and held by Eduard Limonov,\u00a0leader of opposition movement \u201cThe Other Russia\u201d near the Central Election Commission building. The commission refused to register him as a presidential candidate and Limonov was arrested as soon as he arrived at the rally, along with many of his supporters.\u00a0Another protest rally for fair elections was held in Saint-Petersburg, where 500 people out of 3000 participants were arrested.<\/p>\n

Most people who were arrested were released after several hours, accused of breaking the law on rallies.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Two protest rallies were held in the centre of Moscow claimed\u00a0Vladimir Putin stole the Russian presidential election.\u00a0The fact that the major protest was sanctioned by Moscow authorities didn\u2019t prevent the police from arresting hundreds of people in an enormous security operation that saw thousands of police officers and soldiers flood the centre of the capital. […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":90,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","_mi_skip_tracking":false},"categories":[15],"tags":[5146,212,13048],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.indexoncensorship.org\/newsite02may\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/92373"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.indexoncensorship.org\/newsite02may\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.indexoncensorship.org\/newsite02may\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.indexoncensorship.org\/newsite02may\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/90"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.indexoncensorship.org\/newsite02may\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=92373"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.indexoncensorship.org\/newsite02may\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/92373\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.indexoncensorship.org\/newsite02may\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=92373"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.indexoncensorship.org\/newsite02may\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=92373"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.indexoncensorship.org\/newsite02may\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=92373"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}