By Aydar Buribayev
Moscow - Russian police broke up an opposition demonstration in Moscow on Saturday, one of around 50 rallies across the country with thousands protesting falling living standards under Prime Minister Vladimir Putin.
A coalition of opposition groups declared a national "Day of Anger" with nationwide rallies tapping into anger which has been rising since the economic crisis hit. The protests mixed local issues with anger at the federal government.
Opposition groups have been heartened by unusually large rallies in recent months. But riven by division they were unable to match the 10 000 people who gathered for a January rally in the western city of Kaliningrad, one of the largest in a decade.
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"The mood has changed, but it has not yet turned into a movement," said Masha Lipman, an analyst with the Carnegie Moscow Centre think-tank. But for the micro-managers in the Kremlin "the stakes are extremely high", she said.
At least 1 500 people turned out in the Pacific port of Vladivostok, raising their hands to support a motion to dismiss Putin's government. Around 1 000 rallied in Saint Petersburg and hundreds gathered in several other cities.
"People have no work and they are fed up," said Ivan Fotodtov, 26, a Vladivostok web designer who braved snow to protest rising bills cutting into his stagnant wages.
Local elections last week showed support for Putin's United Russia party has fallen since the start of the economic crisis, which brought a sudden end to 10 years of growth and drove unemployment above nine percent. Last year, gross domestic product fell by about eight percent, Russia's worst performance since 1994. - Reuters
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