MOSCOW — Popular anger against Vladimir Putin’s ruling party and alleged election fraud boiled over into a third straight night of protests Wednesday, and police in Russia’s two largest cities arrested scores of demonstrators.
The demonstrations in Moscow and St. Petersburg appeared to attract fewer protesters than in previous days, roughly 300 in each city, but Russians’ willingness to risk jail time and clashes with police indicated significant tensions that could spread.
About 20,000 people have signed up for a Facebook page calling for a massive demonstration Saturday on Moscow’s Revolution Square. Authorities have sanctioned the rally, but say it has to be limited to 300 participants, so a far larger turnout would almost certainly provoke a harsh police response.
Putin’s United Russia party lost a significant share of its seats in Sunday’s parliamentary election for the State Duma, the lower house of parliament, but will still have a majority. Opponents say even that result was achieved by widespread vote fraud.
The latest protests came hours after former Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev urged Russian authorities to annul the results of Sunday’s vote and hold a new one, according to the Interfax news agency.
“More and more people are starting to believe that the election results are not fair,” he told Interfax. “I believe that ignoring public opinion discredits the authorities and destabilizes the situation.”
Gorbachev, whose 1985-91 rule ended with the collapse of the Soviet Union, remains widely admired abroad but is widely disliked or regarded as insignificant at home. His call for a new election could further encourage the opposition but is unlikely to influence those in power.
The 80-year-old Gorbachev has long had tense relations with Putin but until recent years had refrained from directing his criticism of Russian politics at Putin. Putin, for his part, has been highly critical of Gorbachev’s legacy, blaming him for the Soviet Union’s demise.
Putin has shown no sign of trying to appease the protesters. On Wednesday, he registered his candidacy for the March presidential elections, in which he seeks to win a third term and is virtually guaranteed to win.
Putin, 59, was president from 2000 to 2008, then switched to premier due to term limits. But even in that No. 2 slot, the steely Putin dominated Russian political life, overshadowing his mild-mannered and hesitantly reformist successor Dmitry Medvedev.
