Thousands of poor Russians have demonstrated across Russia as part of a campaign of protest against abolition of some benefits that has dented President Vladimir Putin's popularity.
Several thousand pensioners gathered in the centre of Moscow on Saturday demanding the government be fired and calling on Putin to resign over a decision to give cash payouts in lieu of social benefits, such as free travel, a legacy of the Soviet era.
Demonstrators led by the Communist Party carried placards reading "Stop robbing pensioners", "Putin resign" and "Hitler+Yeltsin+Putin=genocide" as well as red flags and portraits of former communist leaders Vladimir Lenin and Josef Stalin.
The communists, who control 48 seats in the 450 seat parliament and constitute the only real organised opposition to Mr Putin, also led a thousand people in the southern city of Stavropol in protest against the cash payouts.
Opponents say they do not cover the benefits and leave many pensioners, used to cheap basic amenities such as housing and energy in Soviet times, living in deep poverty.
"Volodya (Vladimir Putin), what on earth do you think you're doing to the country?" said Vadim, a former KGB officer in his 60s, at the Moscow demonstration.
Protests against replacing benefits from the start of the year led Putin, president since 2000, to publicly chide members of the government over the way the substitution was carried out.
An opinion poll published in the Izvestia daily said on Friday the benefits crisis had reduced the number of people who said they would vote for Putin to 43 per cent, from 48 per cent last month.
Finance Minister Mr Alexei Kudrin said on Friday the government took full blame for the move and that he might draw on a budget stabilisation fund to boost pensioner payouts.