MOSCOW (Reuters) - Russian President Vladimir Putin said on Wednesday Russia needed to ensure that its parliamentary vote scheduled for September is free of foreign meddling following mass protests calling for the release of one of his fiercest critics.
Tens of thousands of people took to the streets last month to urge Russia to free Kremlin critic Alexei Navalny ahead of the September election. The 44-year-old opposition politician was detained and later jailed for alleged parole violations upon his return to Russia. He had been treated in Germany for a nerve agent poisoning he sustained in Siberia last August.