Thousands protest in Moscow against electoral fraud

Russian president Dmitry Medvedev yesterday ordered a probe into the allegations of electoral fraud during the 4 December parliamentary vote in which prime minister Vladimir Putin's United Russia Party won nearly 50 per cent of the vote amid widespread allegations of fraud.

Tens of thousands came out on the streets in Moscow and other cities on Saturday in the largest anti-government protest in the country's post-Soviet history against the reported fraud and call for the resignation of prime minister Vladimir Putin.

Breaking two days of silence, Medvedev on Sunday posted a comment on his Facebook page.

"I disagree with the slogans as well as with the speeches that were made at the rallies,'' he said, but added that he instructed  a probe into reports of electoral fraud, though he did not mention who would carry out the probe.

The post saw 1,000 mostly angry responses within 50 minutes.

The most common of these were ''Shame!'' and "We don't believe you!''.