REUTERS

MOSCOW RUSSIAN demonstrators carried a black coffin bearing the word ‘democracy’ through the city of Vladivostok on Sunday at the start of protests against Vladimir Putin on the eve of his return to the presidency for another six years.

The opposition also planned a “march of the million” in Moscow and staged smaller rallies in other cities the day before a lavish inauguration ceremony inside the Kremlin at which the head of the Russian Orthodox Church will bless Putin.

Many Russians are angry that Putin, 59, is extending his already 12-year domination of Russia and fear he will stifle political and economic reform during his new term.

Witnesses said about 100 protesters staged a rally in a central square in the Pacific port of Vladivostok and unfurled a banner declaring “Putin is not our president”, a reference to allegations of fraud in the March 4 election that Putin won.

“Putin was illegitimately elected. We cannot stay silent and watch this disgrace,” Boris Nemtsov, a liberal opposition leader, said before the Moscow march got underway.

“People who are not indifferent will come to show Putin his inauguration is not a national holiday like he thinks it is, like a coronation, it is the funeral of honest politics.” Putin has dismissed allegations that widespread fraud helped him win the presidential election and secured victory for his United Russia party in a parliamentary poll in December.

Six people were detained after the rally in Vladivostok, opposition supporters told reporters. Police also detained 10 protesters in the Urals city of Kurgan and several were led away by police in the Western Siberian city of Kemerovo, Russian media said. Weeks of protests against Putin, sparked by allegations of electoral fraud, lost momentum when he was re-elected. But the opposition hoped to draw large crowds again on Sunday to put him under more pressure at the start of his new term.

Enthusiasm for the protests could, however, be dented by the fact that the opposition called the protests on a national holiday when many people like to leave Moscow and head for the countryside.