LEAD: Thousands rally across Russia to protest vote fraud

Dec 24, 2011, 10:47 GMT

Moscow - Demonstrators rallied in cities across Russia on Saturday to protest against alleged vote fraud in a recent parliamentary election and to call for the removal of the officials responsible.

More than 40,00 people had gathered in Moscow's central Sadova Prospect by 2 pm (1000 GMT), organizers said.

Former Finance Minister Aleksei Kudrin, who broke with President Dmitry Medvedev over high state spending on armaments, was present at the rally, along with other leading government opponents.

Police presence was strong, with security personnel using metal detectors to vet demonstration participants before allowing them onto the sanctioned protest site.

Police spokesmen gave the size of the Moscow crowd at approximately seven thousand participants and 500 journalists, the Interfax news agency reported.

Protestors shouted anti-government slogans and called for the ouster of Vladimir Churov, head of Russia's Central Election Commission, for his alleged ineffective control of a December 4 parliamentary election considered by the opposition to have been badly flawed by vote-tampering.

Churov in recent comments called the election, which returned the ruling United Russia political party to power, free and fair. He also asserted that Russia had one of most reliable election systems in the world, a claim that has infuriated government opponents.

A possible split within the Russian government on Churov's future was evident on Saturday, with Mikhail Fedotov, a human rights issues advisor for Medvedev, publishing a statement suggesting the president 'immediately look into reports of violations of election law.'

Medvedev and his political ally, Prime Minister Vladimir Putin, have repeatedly said they believe the December 4 election to have been legitimate and that the victory of their party United Russia was fairly gained.

Smaller anti-government rallies also took place in the eastern cities of Vladivostok and Khabarovsk; and in the central Siberian cities of Baranaul, Tomsk, Chita, Irkutsk and Novosibirsk.

The provincial demonstrations numbered in the hundreds, despite temperatures dipping to 30 degrees below zero Centigrade at some locations. Police presence was moderate and the protests were loud but peaceful.

Russia was convulsed by the biggest anti-government demonstrations seen in two decades in the wake of the December 4 election.

Putin is running for president in a March 4 vote as United Russia's candidate. If he wins, he would serve for an unprecedented third term in office - something his critics say would further strengthen the party's control of Russia and repress dissent.

Putin has said he supports democracy and that United Russia's longstanding dominance of the country's politics reflects widespread public support for its policies.