Russia’s ruling party United Russia won only half of the votes in the elections, but opponents say even that poor showing was boosted by widespread fraud.
Numerous video clips of examples of fraud (like this, this and this) have spread on the Internet in the days since Sunday, triggering people to protest.
Moscow has seen large demonstrations two days in a row, with hundreds of protesters arrested on both Monday and Tuesday. Also in St. Petersburg and other cities people have been arrested after participation in demonstrations against the election results.
Facsimile from the group in VKontakte planning demonstrations in Murmansk.
The forthcoming demonstrations all over Russia are mainly planned through social media. A group called “Murmansk against Putin and United Russia! Meeting on Five Corner’s Square on the 10.” in the Russian Facebook-equivalent VKontakte has nearly 1000 members.
A similar group for Arkhangelsk has 770 members, while more than 1560 people in Petrozavodsk have joined the group planning demonstrations there.
As BarentsObserver reported, Arkhangelsk, Karelia, Murmansk and Nenets are among the Federal Districts in Russia where United Russia got fewest votes in Sunday’s parliamentary election. In Arkhangelsk Oblast the party got 31.9%, down from 56.7% in the 2007 parliamentary election. In Murmansk Oblast, United Russia got 32%, down from 55% four years ago. In the Republic of Karelia, the party got 32.3%, down from 57,3% and in the Nenets Autonomous Okrug, the results show 36%, down from 48,8%.
For people who want to follow the demonstrations in Murmansk on Twitter, the official hashtag is #Мурманск10дек
