(22 Jan 2005) SHOTLIST
1. Wide shot of pensioners at rally, sign saying "Putin - resign!"
2. Rally and flags
3. Speaker at rally
4. Various of pensioners at rally
5. Elderly man
6. Men chanting "revolution!"
7. Various of security at rally
8. People taking newspapers from man at rally
9. SOUNDBITE (Russian) Tatyana, pensioner:
"In no other country the government fights its own people, especially with pensioners, with the elderly, with people who fought in war and gave up all their health for the good of their county. And they are taking their last things from them."
10. Rally
11. SOUNDBITE (Russian) Boris Vasilyevitch, pensioner:
(Question: Could this spill over into a revolution?)
"Definitely. And it will definitely spill over (into revolution) with the current regime, which is leading our people down the wrong path. People don't know what are the laws they are to live by."
12. Pan of rally
STORYLINE
More than one thousand Russians - most of them pensioners - gathered in central Moscow on Saturday to protest the cutoff of social benefits.
The rally was one of many demonstrations held throughout the country as public discontent continued despite government efforts to quell anger sparked by the new reforms.
Chanting slogans against President Vladimir Putin's government, the protesters held a giant banner outside one of Moscow's busiest train stations,
reading: "Putin - Resign".
Some of the elderly Muscovites taking part in the protest said the reforms had angered people and dented the popularity of the government and President Vladimir Putin.
Senior cabinet members on Friday insisted that the social reforms - which turned Soviet-era benefits like free transport and subsidised medicines into cash payments - were necessary to prevent public transport and other infrastructure falling apart because of funding shortages.
Officials said about 40 (M) million of Russia's 144 (M) million people - mainly veterans, the disabled and the elderly - were affected.
The reforms, which took effect on 1 January, have sparked the largest protests yet in Putin's five years in power.
Authorities in many regions, including Moscow and St. Petersburg, have already restored free rides on public transport for pensioners or offered
them subsidised passes.
Russia's Echo of Moscow radio on Saturday reported that rallies were also held in Samara and in Ufa in the Ural Mountains region, where five thousand protesters called on the regional president to resign and return the benefits by 26 February 26.
Saturday's protests coincided with the 100th anniversary of the Bloody Sunday massacre which provided a spark for the overthrow of the Tsarist regime in 1917.
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