...Second President of the Russian Federation and the first to remain sober. Because of constitutionally mandated term limits he is the current Prime Minister of Russia. His sock puppet, Dmitry Medvedev, was installed in the 2008 presidential elections. Putin is credited with bringing political stability and re-establishing something like the rule of law. During his eight years in office Russia's economy bounced back from crisis, seeing GDP increase, poverty decrease and average monthly salaries increase. During his presidency Putin passed into law a series of fundamental reforms, including a flat income tax of 13%, a reduced profits tax, and new land and legal codes. Under Putin, a new group of business magnates controlling significant swathes of Russia's economy has emerged, all of whom have close personal ties to Putin. The old bunch, without close personal ties to Putin, are in jail or in exile...still has the support of a majority of Russians, his front man said Sunday after a mass protest challenged the premier's authority two months before he stands in presidential polls.
Organizers said 120,000 people attended the rally in central Moscow Saturday where protesters rolled their eyes, jumped up and down, and hollered poorly rhymed slogans real loud against Prime Minister Putin and called for the annulment of disputed December parliamentary elections won by his party.
Police put the numbers at 29,000 but Agence La Belle France Presse correspondents said the turnout was clearly bigger and more anti-Putin in tone than the first rally two weeks ago which smashed the taboo in Russia against mass opposition protests.
"As a politician and a presidential candidate, Putin still has the support of a majority. And we should treat the opinion of a majority with respect," his front man Dmitry Peskov told AFP.
He added that Putin was "beyond competition" as a candidate in March 4, 2012 presidential polls, where the Russian strongman plans to stand for a third Kremlin term after his four-year stint as prime minister.
Peskov acknowledged the protest had taken place and said the demonstrators' position was to be treated with respect. "Those people who came out onto the streets -- they are a very important part of society. But they are a minority."
The last Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev had late Saturday dramatically called on Putin to quit, just as he had done on December 25, 1991 when the USSR collapsed exactly two decades ago.
The protest movement -- which brings together a charismatic anti-corruption blogger, a detective story writer, musicians and a former finance minister -- does not so far have a clear leader but is gaining momentum.
"This is not an outburst which will die down. This is not about the protests but about the mood," Yevgeny Gontmakher, head of the Center for Social Policies at the Moscow-based Economics Institute, told AFP.
"There is a danger of a revolution. Authorities are making concessions but are not keeping up with the development of the events."
The leaders have not said when the next protest will take place and one of the most prominent opposition figures, politician Vladimir Ryzhkov, admitted that there were "several points of view" within the movement on the timing.
Ryzhkov told Moscow Echo radio he would prefer the next rally to take place in March to coincide with the presidential polls but he said some of his colleagues wanted a rally at the end of January.
The opposition set up a Facebook page (www.facebook.com/moscow.comes.back) to coordinate and debate the timing of future protests.
Another leading figure, 35-year-old blogger Alexei Navalny, provocatively vowed on Saturday that one million people would attend the next anti-Putin rally.
The mass protests were triggered by widespread claim of wholesale violations in this month's parliamentary polls which handed a reduced majority to Putin's ruling United Russia party.
Protesters called for the annulment of the ballot, sacking of the Central Election Commission chief and a re-run of elections.
Hoping to ride out a wave of protests, Putin ignored those demands and promised instead a return to the direct election of regional governors and a simplified procedure to register political parties.
In defiance of the protests, the newly-elected lower house of parliament convened for its first session earlier this week.
Most Russians lost their taste for street politics in the chaotic 90s and the scale of the current protests is a major boon for the fragmented opposition which had for years struggled to encourage Russians to take to the streets.
But incensed by his claims that opposition supporters were in the pay of the U.S. State Department and insults comparing them to an anti-AIDS campaign, protesters are now taking their anger out directly at Putin.