ST PETERSBURG, Russia - President Vladimir Putin accused Washington on Monday of plotting to undermine December parliamentary elections seen widely as a demonstration of his power in Russia.
Europe joined the United States in voicing concern over a weekend police crackdown on protests by an opposition that says it has been banished from the airwaves and from the streets by an overbearing Kremlin. Authorities portray the small groupings as western-backed remnants of the chaotic 1990s.
Putin, who must step down as president early next year, said Russia needed a strong defence sector to "to discourage others from poking their snotty noses in our affairs".
He said he saw Washington's hand in a decision by the Organisation for Security and Cooperation in Europe's ODIHR monitoring arm to abandon plans to observe the December 2 poll.
"We have information that, once again, this was done on the recommendation of the U.S. State Department," Putin said at a meeting with activists of his United Russia party.
"Actions such as these cannot wreck the elections in Russia. Their aim is to deprive the elections of legitimacy, that is absolutely clear. But they are not going to achieve that," he said in his home city of St Petersburg.
Two weekend rallies by a coalition of anti-Putin groups were broken up by police using truncheons. Former chess champion Garry Kasparov, one of the coalition's leaders, was one of dozens of people arrested.
OPPOSITION PROTESTS
In Brussels, European Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso said policing of the opposition protests at the weekend in Moscow and St Petersburg had been "heavy-handed."
