Russian prime minister and presidential candidate Vladimir Putin has ruled out a possibility of holding early parliamentary elections in Russia.
When asked during an interview with editors-in-chief of several leading foreign newspapers whether he had plans to disband the Russian parliament’s lower house, the State Duma, and hold early polls if he won the March 4 elections, Putin said “no."
Mass street protests against the outcome of Decemeber 2011 parliamentary polls swept across Russia late last year. Citing what they called "mass vote fraud" in favor of Putin's United Russia party, protesters have demanded that the State Duma be disbanded and early polls held.
The editors-in-chief of France’s Le Monde, Britain’s The Times, Italy’s La Repubblica, Germany’s Handelsblatt, Canada’s The Globe and Mail and Japan’s Asahi Shimbun newspaper participated in the interview with Putin.
