MOSCOW: President Putin has came under growing pressure to sack the ministers who engineered his unpopular benefits reforms, after the Russian capital was brought to a standstill by the largest protests of his presidency.
Officials said that 250,000 people came out across Russia over the weekend to voice their disdain, and, in some cases, support, for wide-ranging changes that would replace Soviet-era benefits with cash payments. Though the benefits are known as "privileges", for the elderly and disabled they cover such basics as free transport and discounted food and drugs.
The protests came after weeks of mounting discontent and political turmoil during which the president has repeatedly carpeted his senior ministers for the reform's poor execution, amid calls for him to sack his prime minister, Mikhail Fradkov, and his entire cabinet.
In Moscow, 3,000 pensioners gathered around a statue of Vladimir Lenin in a Communist-backed demonstration to demand the government resigns. Yet across the Moscow river a larger crowd, estimated between 30,000 to 40,000, gathered to back the reform drive, an organized response from the United Russia party, Mr Putin's main backers in parliament.
They carried posters with the slogans: "Putin, we are with you!" and "Communists, stop fooling grandmothers!" Traffic in the capital's centre was temporarily halted to ease the protests.
Yet across the country, the anti-Putin presence appeared to be considerably higher, the Communist party claiming that, away from the controlled political climate of Moscow, they had amassed 200,000 supporters.
The demonstrations were the largest expression of discontent yet in Mr Putin's five year administration, and came two days after the Communist fraction failed to push a no-confidence motion through parliament against the government.
Mr Putin's opinion poll ratings have sunk to an all-time low. Moscow saw vociferous protests earlier this year, until the wealthy mayor, Yuri Luzhkov, stepped in and agreed to further compensate benefit recipients.
The cash pay outs, which protesters claim barely resemble the real cost of the items they now get for free or at a discount, were supposed to be introduced on January 1, but have now been delayed until later this year.
Natalia Pavolva, 58, a pensioner from St Petersburg, said in a telephone interview: "My pension is 2,000 rubles a month, my husband's 2,500." She said that their public transport benefits were alone worth about 1,000 rubles a month, but, for this and the cheap rent, drugs and bills which their benefits provide, they will be compensated with 330 rubles.
"The president and those who conceived the reform seem to live in another country. They have no idea of how we survive here. "I wish they lived a month in my skin, and then I would see what songs they sing."
The Kremlin has acknowledged receiving 13,000 letters of complaint. If Mr Putin decides to distance himself further from the reforms, which analysts say have been clumsily executed, two possible casualties are the health minister, Mikhail Zurabov, and the economic minister, German Gref.
The two main architects of the reforms, the former is also caught in a scandal over his wife's dubious purchase of land in the countryside. -Dawn/The Guardian News Service.
