Some 3,000 farmers claiming to represent millions of their colleagues took time off from the harvest Thursday to demonstrate in Moscow against the government for allowing imported food onto the market and damaging domestic production.


Communist chief Gennady Zyuganov and the Agrarian Party boss Mikhail Lapshin headed the All-Russian Agricultural Congress that convened by the entrance of the Gorky park, demanding the resignation of the government, which they said had "destroyed the agricultural sector."


"We are not San Marino, where there is not enough room for a tractor to turn around," said Lapshin. "We are a huge country which can feed itself without any foreign gifts."


Lapshin also cursed those who bought "Egyptian potatoes in commercial kiosks." The crowd responded with wrathful slogans like "Yankee, get out of Russia!" "Boycott imported food!" or "Hands off the farmer's pockets!"