Fill out this form to email this article to a friend
Protests multiply across Russia
Associated Press
Published January 17, 2005
ST. PETERSBURG, Russia - Pensioners and veterans angered over the cutoff of welfare benefits clogged streets and paralyzed traffic in St. Petersburg, hometown to President Vladimir Putin, for a second day Sunday and the street demonstrations spread to other Russian cities.
Top government officials sought to shift the blame by accusing regional leaders of botching the management of new social programs, under which benefits such as free medicine and public transportation were replaced by a monthly government stipend.
Though St. Petersburg authorities promised to restore some benefits after 10,000 people jammed the center of Russia's second-largest city on Saturday, demonstrators returned Sunday to rally on Nevsky Prospect, again snarling traffic in the center of the city.
"Hitler stole our childhood, and Putin stole our declining years," declared a banner held aloft by one the aging protesters.
Others 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. A large contingent of police did not intervene.
Since the new social benefits program went into effect Jan. 1, the protests have spread to several cities cities across Russia's 11 time zones. Retirees were in the streets of the Volga River city of Samara for a fifth day Sunday, and a rally in the southern city of Stavropol drew up to 5,000 people.
Many of the elderly, already complaining the are treated like second-class citizens, consider the changes a final insult as they struggle to survive on meager pensions in inflationary and capitalist Russia. Those affected by the new program lived most of their lives under a cradle-to-grave welfare system until the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991.
Alexander Zukov, the first deputy prime minister, and Boris Gryzlov, the Parliament speaker, appeared on state-controlled Rossiya television late Sunday to defend the social reform bill.
[Last modified January 17, 2005, 01:06:09]
Share your thoughts on this story
|
News
Fifty years ago, they were screwed-up kids sent to the Florida School for Boys to be straightened out. But now they are screwed-up men, scarred by the whippings they endured. Read the story and see a video and portrait gallery.
Print
Email story
Comment
Email editor
