With Vladimir Putin aiming to win a third term as President of Russia in March, a series of protests within the past month has flared up, bringing 100,000 people into the frigid winter streets of Moscow and several other cities throughout the country. While state controlled media does its best to promote pro-Kremlin rhetoric, millions of social-media savvy Russians are ignoring the local print and broadcast press in favor of exchanging news through sites like Twitter and Facebook. The protesters are asking for free elections, and opinion polls have shown that the people are fed up with the corruption of the elite ruling class, the country’s bureaucracy, and the dishonesty of its police force. Putin’s popularity has dramatically sunk from 80 percent in 2007 to 42 percent now. The United Russia party lost 25 percent of its seats in the December elections, but still hung onto the majority of power in parliament. Photographer Valeri Nistratov documented the Moscow protests on December 24, 2011, for Newsweek.
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