Russians Denounce Putin's Reforms
NewsMax Wires
Monday, Dec. 13, 2004
MOSCOW - Hundreds of Kremlin critics gathered Sunday on Constitution Day to denounce what they call a retreat from democracy as President Vladimir Putin signed a bill scrapping gubernatorial elections.
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As the congress met, the Kremlin announced that Putin had signed the bill eliminating gubernatorial elections into law. Putin's other main proposal would end the direct election of lawmakers in the lower parliament house, the State Duma.

Putin proposed the changes in response to terrorist attacks in August and September that killed more than 450 people. Critics warn that they could violate Russia's constitution, which was adopted in 1993 under his predecessor Boris Yeltsin and was considered one of the main democratic achievements of his troubled rule.

"Today we are seeing a cemetery of democratic freedoms - honest elections, fair competition, referendums, an independent Duma, an independent Federation Council," said Vladimir Ryzhkov, an independent lawmaker. The State Duma and Federation Council are Russia's lower and upper parliament houses.

"We really have, many of us, voluntarily given up our freedom, and we've gotten what people always get when they give up their freedom: a boot in the face," he said.

Kremlin critics have struggled to regroup since the main pro-Putin party took overwhelming control of the Duma after elections that shut the two main liberal parties out.

Grigory Yavlinsky, leader of the liberal Yabloko party, suggested that pro-democracy forces must unite as the only way to oppose Putin, and others echoed his call.

"The success of this congress is that the left and the right are forming a broad coalition to fight against increased authoritarianism in Russia," Ryzhkov told The Associated Press.

State-run Rossiya television made no mention of the congress on its evening news program, but gave prominent attention to a Moscow rally by what it said were 15,000 demonstrators, apparently organized by Walking Together, a pro-Putin youth group.

Marchers held signs saying "Putin: We're with you" and others with portraits of opposition figures - including Yavlinsky, liberal politician Irina Khakamada and self-exiled tycoon Boris Berezovsky - stamped with the word "traitor."

Critics have expressed concern that the Kremlin might initiate a constitutional amendment enabling Putin to stay in power after his second term ends in 2008.