HUFF POST: …News agencies reported that Medvedev ordered the investigation after up to 50,000 people took to the streets of Russia’s major cities to express their anger at over disputed parliamentary election results.
The demonstrators say that elections last Sunday, which resulted in a small victory for Putin’s United Russia Party, were fraudulent. A smaller protest, of around 8,000 people, followed the December 5 vote, and there have been other, fragmented shows of opposition in the regions since, analysts said.
In Moscow thousands of troops were deployed to maintain order. The demonstration, the biggest in Russia in twenty years, is the first ever challenge to Putin’s grip on power. The protesters are demanding that the elections be held again and the freeing of political prisoners. … (more)
