RUSSIAN PRIME MINISTER Vladimir Putin has struck a more conciliatory tone in a television phone-in saying that protests against alleged election fraud are acceptable as long as demonstrators do not break the law.

Speaking in an annual question and answer session on Russian TV the two-time president, who is running for a third term next year, said he would ask for web cameras to be installed at polling stations in time for that election in March, according to BBC News.

It follows mass protests against the parliamentary election results earlier this month in which Putin’s United Russia took a reduced majority of seats but were the subject of vote rigging claims.

Putin said the election results reflect the balance of power in the country, saying the drop in support for his party from the last election was an inevitable consequence of the global financial crisis.

“The results of this election undoubtedly reflect the real balance of power in the country. It’s very good that United Russia has preserved its leading position.”

He went on to say that protests were acceptable as long as they remained within the law: ”The fact that people express their opinion… is an absolutely normal thing as long, of course, as everybody acts within the framework of the law.”

Around 50,000 people protested last weekend in Moscow and more demonstrations are expected this weekend. Putin was not without criticism of those protesters.

He accused protest organisers of working to destabilise the country on orders from the West. “That’s a well-organised pattern of destabilising society,” he said adding that some of the participants were paid to show up and he referred to them as sheep.

‘Condoms’

In a crude barb at the opposition, he compared the white ribbons  - that many of the demonstrators have adopted as a symbol of their opposition – to condoms: ”When I saw them on TV I thought it was part of campaigning for HIV prophylactics, and they put some contraceptives on,” he said.

He also took issue with US Senator John McCain who predicted after the fall of Gaddafi during the Arab Spring that Putin too would see protests against his rule in Russia.

Referring to McCain’s time as a prisoner of war in Vietnam, he said: “Mr McCain was captured and they kept him not just in prison, but in a pit for several years,” he said. “Anyone (in his place) would go nuts.”

President from 2000 to 2008, Putin was constitutionally prevented from running for a third consecutive term as president, but he will contest the presidency next year with party colleague Dmitry Medvedev stepping down.

He will go up against established opposition figures Vladimir Zhirinovsky, Gennady Zyuganov, Sergei Mironov and Grigory Yavlinsky who are all due to declare.

Billionaire Mikhail Prokhorov has also declared his interest. The deadline for declaration of bids is today.

- additional reporting from AP

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