THE Russian Communist Party started a campaign yesterday to dismiss President Putin’s Government after more than a week of pensioners’ protests over welfare reform.

The Communists began to gather signatures in the Duma for a motion of no confidence in the Government as pensioners maintained the biggest anti-government protests of Mr Putin’s presidency.

Mr Putin tried to appease protesters on Monday by scolding the Cabinet for bungling the reforms replacing subsidies such as free transport for veterans, pensioners and others with cash payments from January 1.

The reforms, which affect around 40 million Russians, look set to become the Kremlin’s latest policy disaster after the Beslan school siege, the Ukrainian election crisis and the break-up of the Yukos oil giant last year.

Gennadi Zyuganov, the Communist Party boss, told Ekho Moskvy radio: “We want this Government replaced. It has placed a plastic bag over the heads of all veterans. Putin has just been elected. People placed their trust in him, but we are seeing this trust melt before our very eyes.” The Communists must collect at least 90 signatures in the 450-seat Duma to put forward the no-confidence vote and even then it will be easily quashed by Mr Putin’s overwhelming majority.

Boris Gryzlov, the Duma Speaker and head of the dominant United Russia faction that backs Mr Putin, said: “I see no reason for the Government to resign.” The move, however, represents one of the boldest challenges to Mr Putin’s authority since he became President in 2000 and began to reassert the Kremlin’s control over parliament, Government, media and business.

Two ultra-nationalist parties that normally support the Kremlin have indicated that they will vote against the Government of Mikhail Frad- kov, the Prime Minister. Duma deputies and analysts say that Mr Putin may have to dismiss Mr Fradkov, or one of his ministers, if the protests continue.

Thousands of pensioners, defying freezing temperatures, rallied again yesterday in cities across Russia including Perm, Tomsk and Kazan. Natalya Petrova, a protest organiser in Kazan, capital of the southern republic of Tatarstan, said that about 3,000 pensioners were protesting in the town centre for the fifth day running and were planning to block the railway to Moscow today.

“This is our Independence Square,” she said, referring to the site of huge protests in Ukraine that helped to overturn the results of a rigged election in November and propel Viktor Yushchenko to victory in a rerun.

Russian welfare recipients say that the payments do not come close to the value of the free public transport, subsidised medicine, housing and telephone charges that they had.

Mr Putin has stood by the reforms, hoping that an increase in pensions, promised on Monday, will satisfy many of the protesters.

TROUBLED TIMES

2002: Sinking of the Kursk leaves 117 dead

2002: Chechen rebels seize a packed Moscow theatre — 120 die

2003: Head of Yukos Oil, Mikhail Khodorkovsky, is arrested over fraud and tax evasion allegations

2004: Chechen separatists besiege a school in Beslan, North Ossetia — 340 die

2004: Victory of pro-Putin candidate in Ukrainian election is overturned

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