Putin says U.S. encouraging Russian opposition
His remarks followed comments by U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and other senior Washington officials about the outcome of Russia's parliamentary elections, in which the pro-Kremlin United Russia party gained almost half of the vote.
The White House said it had "serious concerns" about the polls, which were marred by accusations of ballot-stuffing and other irregularities, with Clinton describing the vote as neither free nor fair.
"I looked at the first reaction of our U.S. colleagues," Putin said during a meeting with representatives of his All-Russia People's Front movement in Moscow.
"The [U.S.] secretary of state was quick to evaluate the elections, saying that they are unfair and unjust, even before she received materials from the Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights (OSCE/ODIHR) observers."
President Dmitry Medvedev said Sunday's polls were democratic and fair, despite numerous violations registered by international observers, which he said would be investigated.
Clinton's comments, Putin said, became a "signal" for "our activists, who began active work with the support of the U.S. Department of State."
Massive opposition protests against the alleged vote fraud in favor of United Russia took place in Moscow and St. Petersburg following Sunday's elections. Several thousand protesters participated in marches in downtown Moscow on Monday and Tuesday and another major protest is expected to be held on Saturday near the Kremlin's walls.
In this Thursday's comments, Putin said Russia "must protect" its "sovereignty" by thwarting foreign governments' attempts to interfere in its domestic affairs.
"When money from abroad is invested in political activities inside another country, this concerns us," he said, adding that "hundreds of millions of dollars" of foreign money have been spent to influence the election process in Russia.
"We are not against foreign observers monitoring out election process," Putin said. "But when they begin motivating some organizations inside the country which claim to be domestic but in fact are funded from abroad... this is unacceptable"; Kazinform cites RIA Novosti.
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