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Opposition Protests 'Damaged Moscow Budget' - Deputy Mayor

© RIA Novosti . Ramil Sitdikov / Go to the mediabankAnti-government demonstrations in Moscow
Anti-government demonstrations in Moscow  - Sputnik International
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Recent anti-government demonstrations in Moscow have inhibited the city's public services, causing a loss of around 3 million rubles ($102,000), a deputy mayor said in a report on Monday.

Recent anti-government demonstrations in Moscow have inhibited the city's public services, causing a loss of around 3 million rubles ($102,000), a deputy mayor said in a report on Monday.

The report spans "mass rallies" between December 2011 and March 2012, including two protests over Vladimir Putin's presidential election victory last week, Kommersant daily said.

Allegetaions of widespread fraud during December's parliamentary elections in favor of Putin's United Russia party have sparked the biggest anti-government protests seen in Moscow since Soviet times. The protests continued after Putin won a landslide victory in the March 4 presidential polls. His victory has been recognized by foreign states, but Russian monitoring groups said the election saw "systematic" fraud.

Moscow's public services faced long delays because of the demonstrations and were forced to increase the number of employees during the rallies, Deputy Mayor Pyotr Biryukov said in the report.

The report also mentioned a pro-Putin rally on February 23, saying it held up a group of utility workers for 50 minutes.

Alexander Gorbenko, another deputy mayor who has been the principal negotiator with protest leaders, said the report "will be taken into account when negotiating future rallies," Kommersant said.

Vladimir Ryzhkov, one of the leaders of the protest movement, dismissed Biryukov's report, saying demonstrators were "civilized" and caused "minimal harm to Muscovites."

"Why doesn't the report say anything about traffic jams caused by the leaders' motorcades? Doesn't this inhibit the Emergency Ministry and Moscow Gas Works?" the paper quoted opposition lawmaker Gennady Gudkov as saying.

 

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