ladimir Putin yesterday warned Russia would clamp down on "selfish" unauthorised protests over an intensifying economic crisis, which he predicted was far from finished.
His comments came after a string of unauthorised protest actions against his government's handling of the economic crisis in Russia over the last months, some of which were violently dispersed by the police.
Organisers of unsanctioned protests pursue "their own selfish goals, want to assert themselves and speculate on hardships," Putin told a meeting with the governing United Russia party leaders.
In these circumstances "the state and society have the right to react and protect itself in an appropriate manner and there is nothing here to be ashamed or afraid of," Putin said, according to the Interfax news agency.
"Under no circumstances can we allow the events that take place in some countries," Putin added, without elaborating.
With the economic crisis deepening, Putin has come under pressure from protests sometimes mustering thousands of people, especially in Russia's Far East.
Such protests were almost unheard of during the economic boom years over the last decade, although the opposition remains fragmented and marginalised.
In December, the authorities flew riot police from Moscow to the Russian Pacific port of Vladivostok that violently broke up protests against higher tariffs on used imported cars.
On January 31, the Russian security forces arrested dozens of activists at a series of small-scale but unauthorised protest actions in Moscow over the economic crisis.
"We should not and won't limit legal forms of protest-those forms that are stipulated by the law," he said.
In some of the bluntest remarks he has made on the impact of the economic crisis the powerful prime minister said the global economic crisis was set to last as anti-crisis steps by other countries had so far born little fruit.
Putin rejected calls, however, to slap tighter controls on hard currency movements and defended Central Bank monetary and fiscal policies including a 40-percent devaluation of the ruble since November.
