09/12/2011 12:27
US denies Putin’s blames
The US State Department on Thursday denied Russian accusations that it had sent a "signal" to spark demonstrations on the streets of Moscow complaining about election fraud, dw-world.de reports.
Responding to three days of protest that have seen 1,600 people arrested in Moscow and St. Petersburg, Russian Prime Minister Putin accused US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton of criticizing the election process before reading reports by international monitors.
"I looked at the first reaction of our American partners. The first thing that the secretary of state did was characterize [the elections] as dishonest and unfair," Putin said at a meeting with the front's council on Thursday, the Moscow Times reports.