In Moscow and Saint Petersburg, opposition holds protest actions, rallies held and planned in south of Russian Federation

Today, protest actions in connection with the elections to the State Duma conducted on December 4 continued in Russia. During an unsanctioned rally held in Triumph Square in Moscow, more than 100 persons, including journalists, oppositionists Boris Nemtsov and Eduard Limonov, were detained. At the same time, supporters of the "Edinaya Rossiya" (United Russia) Party held their rally in Revolution Square. Today, protest rallies were held in Saint Petersburg, Rostov-on-Don and Makhachkala; on the next day, December 7, a protest action is to be held in Astrakhan.

According to the law enforcement agencies, yesterday, on December 5, at the unsanctioned rally held in the centre of Moscow in Chistye Prudy Boulevard, 300 persons, believing that the elections had been conducted with violations, were detained. Among the detained persons, there were the lawyer Alexei Navalny, the blogger Ilya Varlamov, the politician Ilya Yashin, the journalist Ilya Vasyunin and other participants of the rally.

According to the organizers of the protest action in Chistye Prudy Boulevard, the protest was the most massive one in recent months. Detailed information on the number of protesters is not available, and the bloggers state that up to 10,000 people attended the rally.

Policemen detain hundreds of opposition activists who attended protest action in Triumph Square in Moscow

Today, the opposition again came to the protest action in Triumph Square in Moscow. Policemen detained more than 100 persons, including journalists of federal editions, Elena Kostyuchenko, the reporter of the "Novaya Gazeta" (New Newspaper) and Eduard Limonov, the leader of the Other Russia.

OMON (riot police) fighters behave very rudely during detention, knocking people down. The policemen divide opposition activists and journalists into small groups and then begin to take them into paddy wagons. Buses of the OMON, which contain detainees, drive on the wrong side of Sadovoe Koltso in the direction of the OVD (Interior Division).

"On one side, the OMON fighters are pushing a chain, on the other - activists in green aprons are standing. They are squeezing the people from two sides," reports the "Gazeta.Ru" correspondent.

Policemen detained Alexander Chernykh, the "Kommersant" correspondent. And they beat him in a paddy wagon, the "Kommersant.FM" reports.

"They hit detainees with their heads against a wall before forcing them into a bus," Elena Kostyuchenko wrote in her Twitter.

Policemen detain people to the cries of the activists of the movement "Nashi" (Our): "OMON fighters behave non-adequately," the photoblogger Ilya Varlamov writes in his Twitter.

In Triumph Square, the oppositionist Boris Nemtsov was detained. It was reported by Vladimir Ryzhkov, his colleague on the unregistered Party of Popular Freedom. According to some information, the social commentator Bozhena Rynska was also detained. This was reported by the "Echo Moskvy". The edition emphasizes that a lot of representatives of the pro-Kremlin youth movements gathered in Triumph Square - according to the GUVD (Chief Interior Department), their number amounts to about 5000 people.

Reports on the planned action in Triumph Square appeared on the Internet. The rally participants coordinate their activities through the social network Facebook.

By means of the protest action, activists of the Other Russia, representatives of the "Spravedlivaya Rossiya" (Fair Russia) and the "Yabloko" wanted to demand to stop the prosecution of the participants of the rally for fair elections held on November 5.

Opposition protests also in Saint Petersburg

Like in Moscow, participants of the protest action in Saint Petersburg express their discontent at the results of the elections to the State Duma conducted in Russia and with the elections to the Legislative Assembly of Saint Petersburg. The protesters started the rally with the Russian anthem and then sang several folk songs.

Law enforcement agents force detainees into special cars and buses and bring them to police stations. The exact number of the protesters is not available; according to some sources, several hundreds of people had gathered near Gostiny Dvor, the "BBC" reports.

During the opposition rally near Gostiny Dvor in Saint Petersburg, about 60 persons were detained. This was reported by the spokesman of the Main Department of the Ministry of Internal Affairs (MIA) in the northern capital and the Leningrad Region. "At present, about 60 persons have been detained for participation at unsanctioned rally and failure to obey to the legal demand of the police officers," said the spokesman of the MIA's Chief Department.

Meanwhile, about 100 participants of the protest action near Gostiny Dvor try to organize a march along Nevsky Avenue and block traffic on the main street line, the "Interfax" reports.

"Edinaya Rossiya" Party gathers its supporters in Revolution Square in Moscow

The main rally of the supporters of the "Edinaya Rossiya" Party was held at Revolution Square in Moscow; the rally participants, about 10,000 people, have congratulated the Party on the victory in the elections to the State Duma. The rally was held under the slogan "clear victory". In the square, a stage was set up with images of Dmitry Medvedev and Vladimir Putin with the slogans "I vote 'pro'". Participants of the rally at the forefront waved flags with the symbols of the "Edinaya Rossiya" Party, the "Molodaya Gvardiya" (Young Guards) and the Russian tricoloured flag.

Andrei Isaev, First Deputy Secretary of the Presidium of the Party's General Council, led the rally. He congratulated the audience on the victory of the "Edinaya Rossiya" Party in the elections and thanked the people who voted for the Party.

Andrei Isaev announced that the participants of the rally in Revolution Square "gathered to say 'no' to the loud minority, led by paid provocateurs." "They will never force upon Russia the way of 'bloody revolution'," stated the member of the "Edinaya Rossiya" Party.

Andrei Vorobyov, the head of the Party's Central Executive Committee joined the congratulations. According to him, members of the "Edinaya Rossiya" Party "have won in fair and competitive elections." "We have the plan, the leader and the President. We are determined not to give anyone an inch of our streets," said Andrei Vorobyov.

At the end of the rally, the participants were chanting: "'Edinaya Rossiya', forward", "People, Medvedev, Putin - we will win together", and the Russian anthem was played, the "Interfax" reports and emphasizes that members of the "Edinaya Rossiya" Party gathered their supporters for the rally in Moscow not to give "streets" to the opposition.

Dmitry Medvedev proposes "appropriate institutions" to see videos on Internet on showing up fraud

Today, Vladimir Churov, the head of the Central Election Committee (CEC) of the Russian Federation, reported to the Russian President Dmitry Medvedev on the results of the elections to the State Duma conducted on December 4.

According to the results of processing of 99.999 percent of ballots, the parties "Edinaya Rossiya", the CPRF (Communist Party of the Russian Federation), the "Spravedlivaya Rossiya", and the LDPR (Liberal-Democratic Party of Russia) will get mandates to the State Duma of the 6th Convocation, Vladimir Churov reported to the President. He has also noted that voter turnout reached 60.2 percent of voters; the number was 3 percent less than in 2007 and 5 percent more than in 2003. He has added that his forecast on voter turnout had proved to be the most accurate one.

"You are almost a magician, as some party leaders call you," said Dmitry Medvedev. "I'm just learning," modestly replied the head of the CEC.

During the meeting, the Russian President has also noted the large number of videos, appeared on the Internet after the elections, which show up frauds allegedly committed during the voting.

"At present, there is a fashionable theme associated with publication of short videos on the Internet and social networks. Those videos could also be ordered, and appropriate institutions should watch them," the "ITAR-TASS" quotes Dmitry Medvedev as saying.

Earlier, Dmitry Medvedev announced that the elections to the State Duma had been honest and fair, and no administrative resource had been used.

Let us note that today, the protest actions in connection with the elections held on December 4 were held in the south of Russia.

Thus, the "Caucasian Knot" has reported that in Makhachkala, the Dagestani Republic's Committee of the CPRF held a rally demanding to bring to justice the persons, who, according to the communists, falsified the elections to the State Duma, conducted on December 4. In Rostov-on-Don, policemen prevented an unsanctioned protest action against falsification of the results of the elections to the State Duma in front of the administration of the Rostov Region and detained about a dozen protesters.

Tomorrow, on December 7, members of the "Spravedlivaya Rossiya" Party will hold protest rally against violations at the elections; they demand to recognize the results of the voting in Astrakhan invalid.

On December 10, the opposition movement "Solidarity" will hold a protest action against violations at the elections to the State Duma in the Revolution Square in Moscow. According to Nadezhda Mityushkina, the member of the political council of the "Solidarity", the rally has been coordinated with the Moscow authorities, and the organizers were officially notified of that fact today. The number of rally participants is limited to 300.

Today, representatives from several Russian human rights organizations made an appeal, in which they stated that "apparent drop in public support of the ruling party at the recent elections had pushed the power to a new level of escalation of police and political repressions". They appealed to the newly elected deputies from the CPRF and the "Spravedlivaya Rossiya" urging them to send deputy inquiries on the facts of "preventive detentions" of opposition activists, violations at the elections, and an attack on the association "Golos" (Vote).

The appeal was signed by Lyudmila Alekseeva, Chair of the Moscow Helsinki Group, Svetlana Gannushkina, the head of the Committee "Civil Assistance", Lev Ponomaryov, Executive Director of the All-Russia movement "For Human Rights", Valery Borschov, the member of the Moscow Helsinki Group, Ernst Cherny, Executive Secretary of the Public Committee for Scientists' Protection.