Protests Swell Across Russia

Tens of thousands took to the streets in cities across Russia on Saturday to protest alleged vote-rigging in what observers said were the largest antigovernment demonstrations in at least a decade.

The huge display of popular anger raised the pressure on the Kremlin, which has so far dismissed the postelection discontent as instigated by the U.S. to undermine the Kremlin. But there was no sign that the authorities were willing to even consider opponents’ demands for new elections or a full recount of the disputed Dec. 4 parliamentary vote.

Opposition leaders vowed to keep up the pressure with more demonstrations in a bid to disrupt Mr. Putin’s chances in March presidential elections, when he was planning to secure a six-year term in office.

One opposition leader, Boris Nemtsov wrote in Twitter late Saturday that “We will gather millions” at demonstrations planned for Dec. 17, 18 and 24. “Putin has no choice—in March everyone will see that the king has no clothes.”

The authorities did soften their approach to the protesters somewhat Saturday by giving permits for many of the demonstrations. In Moscow, tens of thousands gathered on Bolotnaya Square across the river from the Kremlin. With 17,000 police standing guard, the three-hour event went off peacefully, in contrast to protests earlier in the week that had ended in hundreds of detentions by police.

“We are here today because we are sick of lies,” said Konstantin Pekhotin, a 20-year-old student. “Yes, consider us gathering here a signal to the authorities,” his friend Andrei Ryabtsev, studying to be a customs officer, chimed in.

In the Dec. 4 vote, the ruling United Russia party of Prime Minister Vladimir Putin saw its support drop sharply, but still retained a majority in parliament. But local and foreign observers reported widespread stuffing of ballot boxes and other abuses, many of which have been spread by reports and recordings on the Internet. U.S. and other Western governments have raised questions about what they say are suspicions of widespread fraud.

“I haven’t walked in a demonstration like this in a long time,” said Gennady Gudkov, a member of parliament from the Just Russia party, as he walked with thousands of others to the main rally. “The people have really awoken. The authorities can’t ignore this many people.”

In Moscow and St. Petersburg, the country’s largest cities, protests built over the days since the vote, drawing many demonstrators who hadn’t attended such actions in the past.

“We just want to show that we exist,” said Ksenia Korneyeva, a magazine editor, who carried white chrysanthemums. Under a light snow, the mood was jovial and euphoric, despite the heavy police presence.

Saturday’s rally was the biggest in years, with some observers comparing it with mass demonstrations at the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991. Police put the total at about 25,000, but that seemed understated. Some organizers said as many as 100,000 attended, crowding into the park along a canal to hear speaker after speaker denounce the vote as falsified and call for the resignation of Prime Minister Putin.

The rally attracted even some of the capital’s glamorous cultural elite and wealthy, who rarely take public political stands.

“I came here to see people’s faces and I see that this is no mob here but genuine faces of nice people,” said Kirill Serebrennikov, a well-known theater director. “The fact that these people showed up here today means that a new, young force has emerged that will have to be taken into account.”

Just how that might happen remains unclear. The demonstrators and speakers ranged from Communist Party members and nationalists to advocates for gays and lesbians. Unified by dismay at what they saw as the flagrant rigging of the elections, their demands went from a recount of the Dec. 4 vote to the resignation of Prime Minister Putin.

Grigory Yavlinsky, leader of the liberal Yabloko party, which ran in the elections but didn’t win any seats in parliament, called on colleagues from other opposition parties to refuse their seats. But legislators from parties that did win seats, such as Mr. Gudkov, said they aren’t ready yet to give up their places for fear they would simply be taken by the ruling party.

Other members of his party said they would push for recounts in regions where major vote-rigging was exposed, such as Moscow and St. Petersburg, but not across the country. But more radical opposition speakers called for annulling the vote and starting the campaign again to allow parties blocked from participating to compete.

State-controlled television softened its virtual blackout of the protests Saturday, leading newscasts with reports of the demonstrations around the country. The neutral reports highlighted the effective work of police at keeping the peace and avoided mention of any of the antigovernment slogans chanted by speakers and demonstrators. There was also no mention of any possible political impact.

Members of the ruling party also conceded that the demonstrations were the largest in years, but played down potential impact.

“These are young people who did not live through the chaos of the 1990s, and so they don’t know that the more demonstrations there are the worse things get,” said Sergei Markov, a senior United Russia member. “They are bored with stable politics and the stability of the country. They are looking for some active political life, for real opposition.”

Mr. Markov said their protests now will force the Kremlin to sit up and listen to demands for more competition in the political system.

But he said that any cancellation of parliamentary elections was out of the question, only some recounting in Moscow and some other cities that could mean a few adjustments to the distribution of seats in parliament.

He said the presidential contest in March would be different, however. The Kremlin, he said, will take greater pains to show that it is an honest contest, and the government will also probably have to open up the contest to a greater number of candidates. Anticorruption activist Alexei Navalnyi—now serving a 15-day prison term for his role in a demonstration earlier in the week—may be one of them, although Mr. Markov said that Mr. Navalnyi would be no serious match for Mr. Putin.

“They want more competition, and they will get this,” he said. But he added that Mr. Putin is still the country’s most popular politician and will prevail in a presidential contest if he handles the situation correctly. “Twenty-five to 30,000 is a good result, but not great. You cannot make a revolution from it.”

WSJ