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Demonstrators demand Russian leadership's resignation

November 07, 2011

IRKUTSK, Russia – Hundreds of people across the southeastern Siberian region of Irkutsk have used gatherings marking the anniversary of the 1917 Bolshevik Revolution to demand that Russia's leaders resign, RFE/RL's Russian Service reports.

On November 7, some 400 activists gathered in the center of Irkutsk, the regional capital. Communist activists, World War Two veterans and representatives of various nongovernmental organizations and movements criticized President Dmitry Medvedev and Prime Minister Vladimir Putin and demanded that they step down.

They also appealed to the population at large not to cast a single vote in the December State Duma elections for the pro-Kremlin United Russia party, widely derided as "the party of scoundrels and thieves."

More than 1,000 activists attended a similar meeting in Angarsk, a town of some 235,000.

They expressed support for the Communist Party of the Russian Federation (KPRF) and said they hoped its candidates will win the Duma elections and the presidential ballot due in March 2012.

In the northern city of Bratsk, hundreds of people took part in three meetings convened by the KPRF.

In a resolution they plan to send to Russia's leaders, they demanded a return to socialism, arguing that "20 years of democratic reforms in Russia have brought the country to collapse."

The KPRF has organized meetings across Russia on November 7 to mark the 94th anniversary of the 1917 October Revolution.

Link to original story on RFE/RL website

Topics: Elections,