MOSCOW — Russia’s opposition will test Vladimir Putin’s grip on power today in protests across the nation’s sprawling expanse that promise to be the largest demonstration of public outrage since the dying days of the Soviet Union.
Widespread reports of fraud in Sunday’s national parliamentary election have galvanized an opposition long marginalized by repressive policies and by state-run news media that virtually ignored them.
Protests, some attracting thousands, rolled on for three consecutive nights in Moscow and St. Petersburg after the election showed fierce anger against the government and Prime Minister Putin’s ruling United Russia party.
United Russia sustained losses of more than 20 percent of seats it previously held in the State Duma. Critics and local election observers say even that result was skewed by fraud.
Smoldering resentment caught fire, largely through social media, and the country today expects to see a massive protest rally in Moscow and demonstrations in 70 other cities.
“This will be a watershed step in the development of our democracy. We expect it to become the biggest political protest in 20 years,” Ilya Ponomarev of the Left Front opposition group said Friday.
There might soon be a symbol to the protests: white ribbons. A group of activists set up a website urging people to wear them in support of today’s demonstrations.
They’re not yet visible on Moscow’s streets, but some opposition leaders and TV presenters are wearing them on their lapels.
President Dmitry Medvedev conceded this week that election law might have been violated, and Putin suggested “dialogue with the opposition-minded” — breaking from his usual authoritarian image.
The statements by Medvedev and Putin mollified no one in the opposition, which predicts at least 30,000 demonstrators will assemble for the Moscow protest.
