EU en VS steunen anti-Poetin protesten (en)
BRUSSELS - The EU has joined the US in saying that Vladimir Putin i's party probably did not win recent elections with anything like the 50 percent of votes it claims.
The EU diplomatic service in a statement agreed by EU countries on Tuesday (6 December) said reports by international monitors that the vote was marred by "violations such as lack of media impartiality, lack of separation of state and political parties and harrassment of indepedent monitors" are a cause for "concern."
With thousands of anti-Putin protesters planning to mass in central Moscow for a second night running despite a show of force by riot police and army units, EU spokeswoman Maja Kocjancic added: "The demonstrations we are seeing following the elections must be seen against the background of what we've said - the lack of independent media, the reports of procedural violations - generally speaking, and this is always our line, the right of people to freedom of assemby and freedom of expression should be respected."
US secretary of state Hilary Clinton i at a press briefing in Bonn, Germany on Monday, was more blunt.
She cited "election-day attempts to stuff ballot boxes, manipulate voter lists" and cyber attacks against Golos, a group of independent Russian monitors, as being "totally contrary" to basic rights. She added: "Russian voters deserve a full investigation of all credible reports of electoral fraud and manipulation."
Prime Minister Putin, who is preparing to rule Russia for another 12 years after he takes back the presidency in March, on Tuesday promised to reshuffle the government in response to his dip in popularity.
The official 50 percent result for his United Russia party is 14 percent less than in 2007 amid disconent over economic stagnation and corruption. Brussels-based NGO Transparency International last week put Russia on par with Nigeria in its report and London-based think-tank the European Council on Foreign Relations (ECFR) reckons United Russia would have received just 30-35 percent of votes in a fair ballot.
A Russian diplomat told this website that Putin in his first term as president in 1999 had to concentrate on restoring order after the collapse of the Soviet Union. But in his second term, he will bring in liberal reforms on good governance and rule of law.
Opposition politicians do not buy the Kremlin line, however.
At a recent congress organised by the European Parliament's Liberal group in Helsinki, opposition leader and former Russian prime minister Mikhail Kasyanov predicted that popular unrest will grow. "The country is becoming a shambles and an Arab Spring situation is becoming inevitable," he said.
The ECFR in an op-ed published in EUobserver on Tuesday cast doubt on the scenario, however.
"The outcome of Sunday's elections should not be mistaken for imminent change. Authoritarian regimes can survive decades of unpopularity, especially if they are also among the world's largest oil and gas producers," it said, noting that the crackdown on Golos "might pre-figure a nastier turn" in terms of repression.
For his part, Putin spokesman Dmitri Peskov on Tuesday - as army trucks rolled into the city centre - warned that the right to freedom of assembly "must be handled in an appropriate way concering participants in unauthorised demonstrations."
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