A review of the results of Russia's December 4 parliamentary elections is impossible, Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin said on Tuesday.
“Any talks about reviewing the results of the elections are impossible, except one way, a court appeal,” Putin said during a meeting with the All Russia People’s Front members.
Putin’s comment is the first reaction to Saturday’s mass protest on Moscow’s Sakharov Avenue that brought together up to 100,000 people according to the organizers of the protest, while police say just 30,000 people attended. People came out to protest against the State Duma elections, allegedly marred by mass vote-rigging and ballot-stuffing. The protesters demand new parliamentary elections and want liberal reforms in Russia.
The prime minister, who views himself as the main contender at the upcoming presidential elections on March 4, also said he did not need electoral fraud to win.
“As one of the candidates, I do not need fraud…I want to rely on the people’s will, trust,” Putin said, adding that “if there is no trust, there is no sense in working.”
Russia’s ex-finance minister, Alexei Kudrin, who is reported to have met with Putin in St.Petersburg a day prior to the Sakharov Avenue protest, said in an interview with the Vedomosti business daily that Putin told him that dialogue with opposition leaders “was possible.”
