Moscow (dpa) - The speaker of Russia‘s upper house of parliament, Valentina Matviyenko, suggested on Wednesday that officials throughout the government should meet with opposition protesters following rallies across the country at the weekend."The government should not just pretend that nothing happened," Matviyenko, a member of the predominant political party United Russia, said in comments carried by the Interfax news agency. "Every representative of the government - lawmakers, senators, executive authorities in the regions - should of course meet with people to understand why they are going out to protest," Matviyenko said.Supporters of opposition leader Alexei Navalny organized rallies in 100 cities across the country on Sunday. Navalny, who intends to run for president in next year‘s election, was detained at a demonstration in central Moscow, along with hundreds of his supporters, as police clamped down on the unauthorized events. Protesters railed against entrenched corruption and singled out Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev in their criticism. Navalny recently released a video alleging that Medvedev had amassed exorbitant wealth as a state official. Despite the protest movement, President Vladimir Putin has maintained popular approval ratings above 80 per cent for the past three years, according to survey results published this week by the US-based pollster Gallup."Tens of thousands of Russians turned out to protest against government corruption last weekend, but since 2014, neither corruption nor a failing economy has hurt Russians‘ approval ratings of President Vladimir Putin," the pollster said in a statement.
