Putin mocks Russia protesters

Prime Minister Vladimir Putin said on Thursday he was untroubled by a protest wave that shook his 12-year domination of Russia but ruthlessly mocked the opposition and rejected claims of election rigging. In a marathon televised phone-in, Putin sought to show his strongman image was intact despite rallies alleging fraud in parliamentary polls that pose an unexpected challenge ahead of his planned return to the Kremlin in 2012. He poked fun at the white ribbon that the protestors have used as their symbol -- saying he thought it was part of an anti-AIDS campaign -- and alleged that some had been paid by the United States. Indicating Russia's ties with the West could see new strains in his third presidential term, Putin savaged the United States and launched an extraordinary attack on Senator John McCain, whom he described as "nuts". Putin portrayed the protests as a positive product of his domination of Russia, which started when he took over as president from Boris Yeltsin in 2000 when the country was still battling the chaos that followed the USSR collapse. "I saw on television mostly young, active people clearly expressing their position. I am pleased to see this. And if this is the result of the Putin regime, then this is good." Referring to the white ribbons, he said: "I decided that it was an anti-AIDS campaign... that they pinned on contraceptives, I beg your pardon, only folding them in a strange way." Tens of thousands demonstrated on Saturday in Moscow in Russia's biggest show of popular discontent since the turbulent 1990s, appearing to show the once invincible support of Putin was on the wane. Putin -- who last week accused US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton of encouraging the Russian opposition -- also alleged that some of the demonstrators were hired to protest against the government. "I know that students were paid some money -- well, that's good if they could earn something," he said. Putin claimed he was not panicked by the protests, saying that when they first broke out he had been playing his new sport of ice hockey, which he joked that he played like a "cow on ice". But Putin -- who now faces three tricky months to shore up his support before the March presidential elections -- sternly warned protestors that to get "sucked into any kind of scheme to destabilise society is incorrect." The opposition is planning a new protest in Moscow on December 24 to call for the invalidation of the election results that almost 22,000 people have vowed to attend on Facebook. Putin expressed regret over the fall of the Soviet Union, saying its leaders should have fought "consistently, fearlessly and steadfastly" to save it, and talked up the stability he brought to Russia after the chaos of the 1990s. He brushed off an incident when he was whistled by the crowd after stepping into the ring after a no-holds barred fight in November, saying "this noise could have been caused by all sorts of things" and he took no offence. President Dmitry Medvedev -- who is stepping aside for Putin to return to the Kremlin after just one term in office -- was barely mentioned throughout the marathon four-and-a-half-hour discussion. Putin said he would leave office "the moment" he felt he had lost support but said that this is determined "not on Internet sites, not in the streets but only in election results". Putin's ruling United Russia party won the parliamentary elections but with less than half the vote -- a result far weaker than previous years but which the opposition said would have been far worse had the polls been free. But with the new State Duma lower house of parliament due to meet next week, Putin insisted that the results were realistic and said the opposition's claims of fraud were predictable. "In my opinion, the result of these elections unquestionably eflects the real political make-up of the country," said Putin, adding opposition parties around the world always criticised the conduct of elections. But in an apparent bid to calm the situation, Putin ordered the installation of web cameras in every Russian polling station and for the footage to be loaded onto the Internet. Making no attempt to calm his rhetoric on foreign policy, Putin alleged US drones and special forces were involved in the killing of Libyan leader Moamer Kadhafi and launched an extraordinary personal attack on McCain. McCain -- a regular Kremlin critic -- already has "enough blood of peaceful citizens on his hands" and had been driven "nuts" by his experience in captivity in Vietnam, said Putin. The audience in the snazzy blue and white studio inside the Gostiny Dvor conference centre featured prominent figures including Mariinsky Theatre chief and star conductor Valery Gergiev who lavished praise on Putin