Thousands Protest Rising Utilities Fees Across Russia

A demonstrator with a red Soviet flag at protest rally in Barnaul on March 24.

Thousands of people across Russia demonstrated today against increases in fees for housing and utilities.

Ekho Moskvy radio reported that more than 1,500 mostly Communist protestors rallied in the northern city of Arkhangelsk while around 600 people held a similar protest in the far eastern city of Yuzhno-Sakhalinsk. REN-TV television reported that about 1,500 people gathered in Novoaltaisk, a city in Russia's Altai region near the border with Kazakhstan.

The protests came a day after several hundred Communist Party supporters rallied in Moscow to condemn the fee increases and demand the resignation of Prime Minister Vladimir Putin's government.

compiled from agecny reports