page_title: 2011–2013 Russian protests
section_title: 17–18 December 2011
hierarchical_section_title: 2011–2013 Russian protests / Protests against the government / 17–18 December 2011
caption_attribution_description: Русский: Митинг партии Яблоко в Москве 17 декабря 2011 года, Болотная площадь English: 'Yabloko' party meeting at Bolotnaya Square, Moscow, Russia, 2011-12-17
context_page_description: The 2011–2013 Russian protests began in 2011 and continued into 2012 and 2013. The protests were motivated by claims by Russian and foreign journalists, political activists and members of the public that the election process was flawed. The Central Election Commission of Russia stated that only 11.5% of official reports of fraud could be confirmed as true.
  On 10 December 2011, after a week of small-scale demonstrations, Russia saw some of the biggest protests in Moscow since the 1990s. The focus of the protests have been the ruling party, United Russia, and its leader Vladimir Putin, the current president, previous prime minister, and previous two-term president, who announced his intention to run again for President in 2012. Another round of large protests took place on 24 December 2011. These protests were named "For Fair Elections" and their organizers set up the movement of the same name.
context_section_description: On 17 December another meeting was held at Bolotnaya Square in Moscow against the election fraud. The rally was organized by Yabloko but members of other political parties participated as well. Among the speakers were Grigory Yavlinsky and Sergey Mitrokhin from Yabloko and Vladimir Ryzhkov from the People's Freedom Party. The Moscow Police claimed there were 1500 demonstrators but eyewitnesses claimed there were up to 5000 people at the peak of the demonstration. In any case, the turnout was far below that of the multi-party rally of 10 December.
  A rally was held on 18 December in Moscow, organized by Communist Party of the Russian Federation in Moscow and took place at Manezhnaya Square. Several thousand supporters turned out, but many were elderly.
  Another smaller rally took place in Saint Petersburg at Pionerskaya Square.
  Gennady Zyuganov, head of the party and its candidate for President of Russia, has denounced election regularities but has also expressed his opposition to the organizers of the mass demonstrations who he views as ultra liberals who are exploiting unrest.
caption: Yabloko party meeting at Bolotnaya Square, Moscow, 2011-12-17
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