December 8th, 2011
10:35 AM ET

Putin accuses U.S. of encouraging Russia election protests

Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin blamed the United States Thursday for encouraging opposition protests that have broken out since parliamentary elections Sunday.

His accusation followed comments by U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton this week on Russia's election in which she called for a "full investigation" of apparent irregularities.

The United States had "serious concerns about the conduct of the election," she said, at a meeting of the Organization for Security and Cooperation (OSCE) in Europe Tuesday.

Speaking on state TV, Putin said Clinton had criticized the elections as "neither fair not free - even before receiving reports from international observers."

This had sent a signal to opposition figures, Putin said, who "with the support of the U.S. State Department" then began "active work."

FULL STORY
Post by:
Filed under: Russia • State Department • U.S. • World
soundoff (23 Responses)
  1. OrangeW3dge

    Too many of these "politicians" refuse to relinquish power. Then they use the excuse that it's the United States fault...

    December 10, 2011 at 3:04 am | Report abuse |
  2. OrangeW3dge

    I suppose this explains why he backed Qaddafi and Assad

    December 10, 2011 at 3:11 am | Report abuse |
  3. Vikas

    Interesting development, ieendd! But I am not sure if that is the best strategy for CNN: isn’t it the easier thing to do, to separate citizen contributions even more from the journalists’ work? Will the content in the new site make a difference or be a worthy addition to CNN’s professional reporting? I'm skeptical.

    March 12, 2012 at 6:38 am | Report abuse |
1 2
« Back to main