ROZA TOWNSHIP, Chelyabinsk region, February 4 (Itar-Tass) —— Prime Minister Vladimir Putin said he was surprised that so many people had come to a rally in his support in Moscow.
He believes that the so-called administrative resource alone could not bring so many people.
According to official information, about 134,000 people attended the rally at Poklonnaya Hill in the west of the city on Saturday, February 4. “The Moscow city authorities say – [Moscow Mayor] Sergei Semyonovich [Sobyanin] called me and say that there were 190,000 people,” Putin said during a working trip to the Chelyabinsk region.
“Everyone has the right to express his position and demands to the authorities or support them. And no one expected so many people to come to Poklonnaya Hill. Frankly speaking, I did not,” he said.
“I do not rule out that there were some elements of the administrative resource, but it alone could not bring together 134,000 or 190,000 people. It is absolutely clear that the people simply came to express their position and this position is certainly connected with support for what we are doing. This is very important for me. I have already said that it would be impossible to work without it,” the prime minister said.
In his opinion, the main factor fostering people’s trust to the authorities is attention to concrete problems and cited his trip to the Chelyabinsk region as an example. It focused on the problems of people who live in the dangerous proximity to the expanding creator from a coal mine.
“You can see what we are doing here. We are dealing with concrete problems of people who live here. I think this is what generates people’s trust to what we do, and your humble servant, too,” Putin said.