Prime Minister Vladimir Putin delivered New Year's greetings on state television with a touch of sarcasm for those protesting in recent weeks against his 12 years in power and his presidential bid.
In Saturday's televised comments, Putin wished well-being and prosperity to "all of our citizens regardless of their political persuasion, including those who sympathize with leftist forces and those situated on the right, below, above, however you like."
In Russian, as in English, the sentence could be taken as a sexual innuendo.
Putin often uses crude language, especially when speaking about his critics. But sarcastic comments about protesters during his call-in show in mid-December backfired, instead goading Muscovites to attend the next rally.
After he said the white lapel ribbons worn by protesters at the massive Dec. 10 protest looked like condoms, protesters showed up at the mass demonstration on Dec. 24 with homemade signs ridiculing him. Those included a poster of Putin with his head wrapped in a scarf-like condom and another showing Putin and a condom with the words, "Attention! Not for re-use."
Putin, who served as president from 2000 until 2008, when he moved into the prime minister spot, intends to reclaim the top job in the presidential election in March.
But some Russians, especially young professionals in Moscow and other cities, have grown weary of him and the country's lack of political competition and its large-scale corruption.
Blatant vote manipulation in the Dec. 4 elections for State Duma ― ballot stuffing that helped Putin's United Russia party hang onto its majority ― caused widespread outrage and set off the recent wave of protests. A third mass demonstration has been set for Feb. 4.
On Saturday, a small anti-Putin protest in Moscow led by more-radical opposition groups was broken up by police, who detained 60 people.
Putin is keen to portray himself as the guarantor of Russia's stability, a theme he touched on in Saturday's comments. He warned of the threat posed by a global economic crisis and said Russia remains an "island of stability."
Later Saturday, President Dmitry Medvedev gave a formal New Year's address in which he was more conciliatory toward Kremlin opponents.
"Yes, we are all different, but our strength lies precisely in that, as well as in our ability to listen to, understand and respect one another, to overcome any difficulties and achieve success," he said in a prerecorded video broadcast across the country's nine time zones.
Putin has shown limited interest in talking to the protesters, something he is now being urged to do by his former finance minister, Alexei Kudrin, who is serving as an intermediary. Kudrin said via Twitter on Saturday that he had met earlier in the day with opposition leaders Vladimir Ryzhkov and Sergei Parkhomenko.
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