Angry retirees demanding that their social benefits be restored staged a second day of protests in Russian President Vladimir Putin's home city, and along with protesters in other Russian cities demanded the president resign.
It has been the greatest public outburst of discontent since Putin took power five years ago. Top officials on Sunday tried to shift blame, accusing regional authorities of failing to implement the Kremlin-sponsored social reform properly.
PHOTO: AP
Though St. Petersburg authorities promised to restore some benefits after 10,000 people flooded Russia's second-largest city on Saturday, about 1,000 demonstrators returned Sunday to rally on central Nevsky Prospect, paralyzing city traffic.
The protesters, most of them elderly, waved red flags, beat spoons against saucepans and chanted slogans calling for Putin to step down.
"We are here to demand the right to life," said Zhanna Filonova, 61.
The protests, which have spread to cities across Russia's 11 time zones, were triggered by a Jan. 1 law that gives retirees, the disabled and war veterans cash stipends instead of benefits such as free public medicine and transportation.
Many of the elderly, already feeling disenfranchised, considered the change a final insult after they were left struggling to survive on meager pensions in inflationary and capitalist Russia when the state welfare system collapsed with the Soviet Union in 1991.
"Prices keep rising, and now they have canceled our benefits," said Yevgeniya Sidorova, 70. "Putin and his government want us to lie down and wait for death to come."
Defending the social reform bill, First Deputy Prime Minister Alexander Zhukov and Parliament Speaker Boris Gryzlov blamed provincial authorities for the failure to deliver the promised cash stipends in full.
"It's quite natural that people are angry," Zhukov said on state-controlled Rossiya television late on Sunday.
Protesters say new monthly payments of about US$10 are worth much less than the benefits, leaving them to have to choose between food, transport and medicine.
Many pledged to keep protesting until benefits were returned and pensions were increased. An average monthly pension is now worth about US$80.
The rallies across Russian cities, many of which involved blockades of key highways, have put new pressure on Putin, who has seen little public protest in his tenure during which most citizens have either supported or simply accepted the Kremlin's initiatives.
When Shanghai-based designer Guo Qingshan posted a vacation photo on Valentine’s Day and captioned it “Puppy Mountain,” it became a sensation in China and even created a tourist destination. Guo had gone on a hike while visiting his hometown of Yichang in central China’s Hubei Province late last month. When reviewing the photographs, he saw something he had not noticed before: A mountain shaped like a dog’s head rested on the ground next to the Yangtze River, its snout perched at the water’s edge. “It was so magical and cute. I was so excited and happy when I discovered it,” Guo said.
TURNAROUND: The Liberal Party had trailed the Conservatives by a wide margin, but that was before Trump threatened to make Canada the US’ 51st state Canada’s ruling Liberals, who a few weeks ago looked certain to lose an election this year, are mounting a major comeback amid the threat of US tariffs and are tied with their rival Conservatives, according to three new polls. An Ipsos survey released late on Tuesday showed that the left-leaning Liberals have 38 percent public support and the official opposition center-right Conservatives have 36 percent. The Liberals have overturned a 26-point deficit in six weeks, and run advertisements comparing the Conservative leader to Trump. The Conservative strategy had long been to attack unpopular Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, but last month he
Chinese authorities said they began live-fire exercises in the Gulf of Tonkin on Monday, only days after Vietnam announced a new line marking what it considers its territory in the body of water between the nations. The Chinese Maritime Safety Administration said the exercises would be focused on the Beibu Gulf area, closer to the Chinese side of the Gulf of Tonkin, and would run until tomorrow evening. It gave no further details, but the drills follow an announcement last week by Vietnam establishing a baseline used to calculate the width of its territorial waters in the Gulf of Tonkin. State-run Vietnam News
PROBE: Last week, Romanian prosecutors launched a criminal investigation against presidential candidate Calin Georgescu accusing him of supporting fascist groups Tens of thousands of protesters gathered in Romania’s capital on Saturday in the latest anti-government demonstration by far-right groups after a top court canceled a presidential election in the EU country last year. Protesters converged in front of the government building in Bucharest, waving Romania’s tricolor flags and chanting slogans such as “down with the government” and “thieves.” Many expressed support for Calin Georgescu, who emerged as the frontrunner in December’s canceled election, and demanded they be resumed from the second round. George Simion, the leader of the far-right Alliance for the Unity of Romanians (AUR), which organized the protest,