[In Moscow, thousands of antigovernment protesters gathered
in a city square to blast it as illegitimate, chanting “Russia without Putin,”
and “Putin is a thief; we are the government!” When riot police demanded that
the crowd disperse after a couple of hours, dozens of demonstrators encircled
the blogger Aleksei Navalny, the most charismatic figure to emerge in this wave
of activism, trying to prevent his arrest. But officers detained him anyway,
pushing him into a police van along with most of the movement’s other prominent
leaders. The police said 150 people were detained.]
 |
James Hill for The New York Times
Thousands of demonstrators
gathered in Pushkin square, the statue
of the poet standing behind them,
to protest the result of yesterday's
presidential elections in Russia. More Photos »
|
MOSCOW — A day after claiming an overwhelming victory in Russia’s presidential elections, Vladimir
V. Putin on Monday faced a range of challenges to his legitimacy,
including charges of fraud from international observers and a defiant
opposition that vowed to keep him from serving his full six-year term.
While Mr. Putin was still celebrating his victory, he
received a slap in the face from observers from the Organization for Security
and Cooperation in Europe. While finding less of the ballot stuffing and other
flagrant violations that marred parliamentary elections in November, the
observers said Mr. Putin had faced no real competition and unfairly benefited
from lavish government spending on his behalf.
Mr. Putin received milder responses from the European Union
and from the United States. The White House did not comment, and the State
Department put out a written statement congratulating the Russian people and
saying the United States “looks forward to working with the President-elect
after the results are certified and he is sworn in.”
Not only did the Obama administration avoid criticism of Mr.
Putin’s return to power; it said it was encouraged by the aspects of election,
by the turnout and by public protests of those “exercising their constitutional
right to free assembly and expressing their views peacefully about the
political and electoral processes.”
While it noted concerns about “the conditions under which
the campaign was conducted, the partisan use of government resources, and
procedural irregularities on election day,” the statement also praised welcomed
pledges by the authorities to increase transparency in elections and restore
elections for regional governors. The number of election observers, the
statement added, was “a sign that Russian society seeks to participate in the
improvement of Russia’s democratic institutions.”
In Moscow, thousands of antigovernment protesters gathered
in a city square to blast it as illegitimate, chanting “Russia without Putin,”
and “Putin is a thief; we are the government!” When riot police demanded that
the crowd disperse after a couple of hours, dozens of demonstrators encircled
the blogger Aleksei Navalny, the most charismatic figure to emerge in this wave
of activism, trying to prevent his arrest. But officers detained him anyway,
pushing him into a police van along with most of the movement’s other prominent
leaders. The police said 150 people were detained.
Another 300 people were detained after a simliar event in
St. Petersburg.
Mr. Putin’s capture of 63.75 percent of the vote on Sunday
extended his claim on power to 18 years and strengthened his hand against the
opposition, which he cast as pawns of Russia’s enemies.
Leaders of the opposition vowed to challenge Mr. Putin’s
claim to the position, largely by uncovering and disseminating evidence of
fraud.
“This was a procedure and not really an election,” Mr.
Navalny said late Sunday night, as he watched the election returns came in from
a café crowded with supporters. “It’s historic in that up until today, Putin
had some claim on legitimacy as a political leader, but now that he has run
this fake election marked by mass fraud to become emperor, he has none.”
He said, when someone asked, that he was not concerned about
being arrested.
“I am just one cog in a very big machine,” he said. “If we
have to, we will stay in the streets forever until they accept our demands.”
But many in the opposition acknowledged that the joyous mood
was gone. Yuri Saprykin, a magazine editor who has helped organize the rallies,
wrote that “even considering the falsifications, carousels, blocking of Web
cameras, Putin has a majority which nothing and no one can oppose.” When a
speaker at the rally exhorted the crowd to accept that Mr. Putin had won,
voices from the crowd shouted “No!”
Among demonstrators gathering around a statue of Alexander
Pushkin in the square named for him on Monday night, one held a sign that read,
“Bye, future.”
“There is a sense that everything has now ended,” said
Alyona Krivolapova, 21, a student. “These last elections were not annulled and
these elections will not be. I’m waiting to hear from the organizers what our
next move will be.”
Reflexively, she computed how old she will be in 2024, when
Mr. Putin will be term-limited out of office. “All of my best years will have
been given to Putin.”
Mr. Putin was genuinely shaken in December, when his United
Russia Party performed dismally in parliamentary elections. Even those results
were padded by ballot-stuffing and other flagrant violations, touching off
protests in which tens of thousands of young Muscovites chanted “Russia without
Putin” and “Putin is a thief.” Mr. Putin’s own approval ratings had dropped to
a 10-year low, meanwhile, suggesting that he had miscalculated in announcing
his return to the presidency for a six-year term. He has already served eight
years as president and four as prime minister.
Mr. Putin managed to consolidate his support in recent
weeks, though, and in many regions received nearly double the percentage of
votes as United Russia did in December. This is partly because he faced a
docile, shopworn field of competitors. He also postponed an annual increase in
utility charges, increased pensions and military salaries, promised an
avalanche of new government spending, and dipped deeply into populist rhetoric.
Last week he took the unusual step of appearing in a packed soccer stadium and
exhorting people to stand with him defending Russia against foreign enemies.
“I thought, ‘My God, it’s so much like the Republican
convention’ — he really introduced a Western-style campaign,” said Nikolai
Zlobin, a political analyst at the World Security Institute in Washington. “I
didn’t know he could. He doesn’t like to show his emotions, but for the last
two months you have seen so much of Putin’s emotions, which is unlike Putin. It
was not like the iron mask we have seen for 12 years.”
The question of whether Mr. Putin’s victory is legitimate
could affect his standing over the next few years, and authorities took pains
to head off charges of fraud in this round of voting, introducing technologies
like transparent ballot boxes and installing 180,000 Web cameras at polling
stations.
Nevertheless, the vote came under criticism Monday from
observers from both the Organization for Secretary and Cooperate in Europe and
the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council. The observers said that there were
fewer violations in the presidential election than in the parliamentary race,
partly as a result of a huge increase in public attention that vastly expanded
the number of election observers, especially in Moscow.
They said they had found evidence of irregularities in vote
counts and the certification of tallies, and categorized one-third of the polling
stations they visited as “bad” or “very bad.” But their fundamental critique
concerned the overall framework of the campaign, which they said gave
opposition candidates little chance.
“The point of elections is that the outcome should be
uncertain,” Tonino Picula, a former minister of foreign affairs from Croatia
who led one group of observers, said at a news conference. “This was not the
case in Russia. There was no real competition and abuse of government resources
ensured that the ultimate winner of the election was never in doubt.”
The chairman of Russia’s Central Election Commission,
Vladimir Y. Churov, took a combative posture toward the observers, accusing
them of engaging in espionage.
“The international election observation mechanism of certain
organizations has transformed into the collection of political or even
military-political information,” he said. “The number of observer attempts to
penetrate into military units, restricted areas or border zones has grown
lately.”
Mr. Putin was clearly reassured by his strong showing on
Sunday, appearing overwhelmed by emotion when he spoke to a huge crowd of
supporters in Manezh Square. There was much discussion on Monday about the tear
that trickled down his cheek when he took the microphone, which his press
spokesman said had been caused by the wind.
But Konstantin Y. Remchukov, editor of the newspaper
Nezavisimaya Gazeta, said Mr. Putin was clearly emotionally affected, noting
that “it was obvious that he put himself fully into this campaign.” He added
that in the flush of this victory, Mr. Putin may underestimate real demands for
change coming from the public.
“If Putin ignores this crowd, if he thinks he’s got victory,
he will be the loser, because their ideas will defeat any system,” Mr.
Remchukov said. “He doesn’t have time. He has to adopt the international
standards of democracy right now.”
In the crowd at Pushkin Square, too, there were some who
seemed undaunted by the juggernaut of Mr. Putin’s victory.
“I don’t think he will remain in office for the full six
years,” said Viktor Shvykov, 32, a former police captain. “He has a very short
period of time to make some serious changes or the dissatisfaction will grow
rapidly.”
Reporting was contributed by David M. Herszenhorn and David
Carr from Moscow, and Steven Lee Myers from Washington.
