Russian police have broken up a rally in central Moscow in protest of Vladimir Putin's landslide victory in the presidential election Sunday. Dozens of demonstrators were arrested.
Among those arrested Monday were Eduard Limonov, the leader of the banned National Bolshevik Party, and opposition leader Alexei Navalny, who posted on Twitter, “Hello everyone, from the police van.”
More than 20,000 Russians turned out in central Moscow's Pushkin Square. Some chanted “Russia without Putin,” while others shouted “Power to millions, not to the police.” Riot police dispersed the crowd.
Thousand of Mr. Putin's supporters staged rallies closer to the Kremlin, waving Russian flags and chanting the president-elect's name.
In St. Petersburg, Russia's second largest city, police broke up an unsanctioned opposition protest, detaining at least 100 protesters in a similarly rough manner.
International observers said the election was clearly skewed in Mr. Putin's favor. A statement from the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe said there was no real competition and voters had a limited choice of candidates because of overly restrictive registration requirements. It said abuse of government resources ensured that the winner was never in doubt. The observers also reported voting irregularities at one-third of the polling stations.
Preliminary results give Mr. Putin 64 percent of the vote and his closest rival, Communist Party chief Gennady Zyuganov, 17 percent. Three other candidates won less than 10 percent.
World leaders acknowledged Mr. Putin's victory with reservations. European Union foreign affairs chief Catherine Ashton urged the Russian leaders to address the “shortcomings” identified by international observers.
In a statement Monday, the U.S. State Department congratulated the Russian people on the completion of the presidential poll and said it looked forward to working with the president-elect after the results are certified and he is sworn in. But the statement also urged Moscow to launch an “independent and credible” investigation of all reported electoral violations.
At a rally late Sunday, Mr. Putin told his supporters that he won an “open and honest struggle.” But independent watchdog agency Golos said it has registered more than 3,000 reports of irregularities, including so-called “carousel voting,” a practice in which busloads of voters are taken from one polling place to another to cast ballots.
Communist Party candidate Zyuganov denounced Sunday's election as “illegitimate, unfair and not transparent.” Others complained of doctored voting lists and said pro-Kremlin business leaders installed voting booths in factories and pressured workers to vote for Mr. Putin.
Mikhail Gorbachev, the last Soviet-era leader, told the Interfax news agency he doubts the results reflect the true will of Russians. He said the challenge now is to change the country's election system to make voting fair, and to restore the direct election of governors.
Mr. Putin became acting president at the beginning of 2000, after then-President Boris Yeltsin stepped down and hand-picked him as his successor. Later that year, Mr. Putin won a presidential election and again in 2004. The constitution barred him from a third consecutive term. Mr. Putin has served as Russian prime minister for the last four years under outgoing president Dmitry Medvedev.
Mr. Putin's critics say he planned to return to the presidency all along and that he never really gave up his powers. A constitutional amendment has extended the president's time in office to two consecutive six-year terms, meaning Mr. Putin could stay in power until 2024 — an outlook many Russians find unsettling.
