“Putin, go away”
Opponents of Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin erected a huge banner reading "Putin, go away" on a rooftop facing the Kremlin Wednesday in a bold display of disapproval of his plan to return to the presidency in an election next month.
However, the Russian Premier did not read the banner as he is on holiday.
A picture of Putin, his face crossed out with an X, stared from the black-and-yellow banner across the iced-over Moscow River at the Kremlin, the seat of Russian power now occupied by President Dmitry Medvedev.
The banner was posted by the activists of the opposition movement Solidarity. It was one of just a few such big displays near the Kremlin since he came to power in 2000. It shows that the opposition is intensifying its protests demanding Putin leave office. On February 4, the opposition will hold another rally in Moscow.
A Solidarity leader, Ilya Yashin, said the banner faced the Kremlin because "Putin was and remains the master of the Kremlin."
Yashin said activists put up the banner -- which was affixed to a billboard atop a seven-storey building -- after climbing a fire stair and quickly left when they were done.
