Putin accuses U.S. of financing protests in Russia

PanARMENIAN.Net - Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin accused the U.S. authorities on Thursday, December 8, of sponsoring the opposition in Russia and urged harsher punishment for those acting on orders from “foreign states,” RIA Novosti reports.

His remarks followed comments by U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and other senior Washington officials about the outcome of Russia’s parliamentary elections, in which the pro-Kremlin United Russia party gained almost half of the vote.

The White House said it had “serious concerns” about the polls, which were marred by accusations of ballot-stuffing and other irregularities, with Clinton describing the vote as neither free not fair.

“I looked at the first reaction of our U.S. colleagues,” Putin said during a meeting with representatives of his All-Russia People’s Front movement in Moscow. “The [U.S.] secretary of state was quick to evaluate the elections, saying that they are unfair and unjust, even before she received materials from the Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights (OSCE/ODIHR) observers.”

In this Thursday's comments, Putin said Russia “must protect” its “sovereignty” by thwarting foreign governments’ attempts to interfere in its domestic affairs.

“When money from abroad is invested in political activities inside another country, this concerns us,” he said, adding that “hundreds of millions of dollars” of foreign money have been spent to influence the election process in Russia.

“We are not against foreign observers monitoring out election process,” Putin said. “But when they begin motivating some organizations inside the country which claim to be domestic but in fact are funded from abroad… this is unacceptable.”