Demonstrators gather for new mass rallies across Russia

A human rights group set up by Russian President Dmitry Medvedev has called for snap elections, as thousands of demonstrators gathered across the country to protest against the results of the country's disputed December 4 polls.

The Kremlin's rights panel also called for the resignation of the election chief on Saturday in statement on what it called "discredited" polls that have sparked the mass demonstrations.

The recommendations by the panel - which advises Medvedev on rights and social issues - are not binding but will add to pressure on the authorities for radical changes in the wake of the polls.

It said that there was "mass distrust of the poll results" which showed fallen support for Vladimir Putin's United Russia party but still gave it a majority in parliament.

The Kremlin panel added that new election laws should be put in place "with the aim of then calling snap elections" to replace the current parliament that met for its first session on Wednesday.

"Numerous reports of ballot stuffing, re-writing of protocols of ballot results, an unjustified removal of observers and journalists [from polling stations], a ban on photography and video recording and other violations of electoral rights as well as inexplicable paradoxes of electoral statistics lead to mass distrust of the poll results," the rights panel statement said.

'Supreme crook'

The panel's announcement came as Russian opposition activists prepared to stage a second nationwide rally to protest against what they say were rigged parliamentary elections on December 4.

Organisers say tens of thousands of people were expected to gather on Sakharov Avenue, in the capital Moscow, on Saturday.

Demonstrators had already started to rally in the far east city of Vladivostock early on Saturday, with protests expected in 95 towns and cities across the country's nine timezones throughout the day.

"They [protesters] want to make sure they send the clearest signal yet of growing public discontent with the results of this year’s parliamentary election," Al Jazeera's Neave Barker reported from Moscow.

Representatives of the Far Eastern branches of the Russian communist party and the liberal Yabloko party, as well as individual protesters, gathered on Korabelnaya Embanktment in Vladivostok on Saturday to demand new parliamentary elections.

Some protesters carried posters calling for Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin to be prevented from becoming Russia's next president.

Others openly called him "a supreme crook" and demanded he be put on trial.

A single policeman in Vladivostok tried to persuade the demonstrators to disperse, but people argued that they had the right to assemble.

"Most certainly, what they [the Kremlin] want to try and avoid is a repeat performance of the kind of violent clashes that were seen between protesters and riot police directly after elections," our correspondent reported.

Gorbachev 'ashamed'

Incensed by claims of wholesale violations in the polls that handed a reduced majority to Putin's ruling party, tens of thousands of people already took to the streets across Russia on December 10.

Those protests were the biggest show of public anger in Russia since the 1990s and the first sign of a growing challenge to Putin's 12-year domination of the country.

Among those attending Saturday's protest in Moscow may be the Soviet Union's last leader Mikhail Gorbachev, 80, who has been critical of the elections, although his spokesperson emphasised it would depend on how he felt on the day.

Gorbachev said in an interview with the Novaya Gazeta on Friday that he was ashamed by Putin's reaction to the protests, after the Russian strongman compared the white ribbons worn by demonstrators to condoms.

Anti-Kremlin blogger Alexei Navalny is also expected to be present after his release from prison following a brief sentence for his participation in a protest shortly after the elections.

President Dmitry Medvedev proposed a package of reforms in an apparent bid to appease the protesters on Thursday, including the resumption of direct elections for governors and a simplified procedure to register political parties.

But it is unlikely the moves will satisfy protesters who want the government to annul the ballot results, sack Vladimir Churov, the election commission chief, and hold a new vote.

In the face of the protests, the newly elected lower house of parliament, the state Duma, held its first session on Wednesday.

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