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ST. PETERSBURG, Russia – A teacher went on trial Wednesday after publicly claiming that shewas pressured to help rig Russia's parliamentary election to boostthe results for Vladimir Putin's party. Like many teachers and principals in Russia, Tatyana Ivanova was incharge of a polling station set up in the school where she worked. She accused Natalya Nazarova, an education department official inSt. Petersburg, of pressuring her and other poll workers to falsifythe vote and instructing them on how to do it. Ivanova now faces charges of damaging the education official'sprofessional reputation and, if found guilty, could be ordered topay compensation of up to 100,000 rubles, or about $3,300. Putin's United Russia party won the December election and managedto cling to its majority in parliament, although observers reportedwidespread fraud. Anger over the manipulated vote set off a seriesof mass protests against Putin, the first he had faced in more than12 years in power. Putin returned to the Kremlin after winning a third presidentialterm in March, but he still faces an opposition eager to challengehis centralized control and push for free and fair elections. Ivanova has seen an outpouring of public support, and dozens of herbackers were in the courtroom on Wednesday. "Millions of people in Russia are on your side," Grigory Yavlinsky,the veteran leader of a liberal opposition party, told Ivanovabefore the hearing. "The falsifying of election results has been going on in Russia forthe last 16 years," Yavlinsky said later in an interview with TheAssociated Press. "And this case demonstrates that society hasfinally realized how serious this problem is in the country." Ivanova, a 53-year-old teacher of Russian language and literature,is one of the few poll workers who have been willing to speakpublicly about the pressure they faced during the election. Herstory was published in the opposition newspaper Novaya Gazeta. "Maybe it was not a rational action, but at least it was not acowardly one. I did it because I was too disgusted to falsify thevote, and I did it for my students, so that they would know thatsuch things are wrong," Ivanova told the AP ahead of her trial. Ivanova said she and the heads of other polling stations were toldto add as many as 200 votes for United Russia and were offeredmoney for their services. Some others also refused to falsify thevote, she said, but only one of them has agreed to testify in hersupport. "People are afraid of losing their jobs," said Ivanova, who wasclose to retirement age and quit her job as a result of thescandal. Nazarova did not attend Wednesday's hearing and her lawyer refusedto comment. We are high quality suppliers, our products such as Drinking Glasses Sets , China Stainless Steel Food Container for oversee buyer. To know more, please visits Stainless Steel Cookware Sets.
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