Dmitry Medvedev tells Barack Obama about US criticism of Russian polls

 Russian President Dmitry Medvedev during a telephonic conversation with his US counterpart Barack Obama said that Washington's comments over Russia's allegedly rigged parliamentary polls were inadmissible.

Speaking at the meeting with the members of the ruling United Russia party, Medvedev said that Friday he told Obama that the US officials' assessment of Russian elections "does not have any significance for us".

On Dec 6, two days after Russian parliamentary elections that sparked criticism across the country over the alleged mass ballot stuffing and vote fraud in favour of the United Russia party, the US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said Russia's polls were "neither free nor fair".

"When on the next or the second day [after the elections]… there are rebukes in the worst traditions of the Cold War, it is inadmissible. It is not a reset at all," Medvedev said. "The Department of State is not a Russian office."

Obama and Medvedev had a telephone conversation Friday, Kremlin said. Obama congratulated the Russian leader on Russia's admission to the World Trade Organisation and voiced the United States' intention to continue cooperation.

Medvedev reiterated Saturday that Russia would act on the international political arena according to its interests.

Speaking about nationwide protest rallies, Medvedev told the United Russia members that the protests should be carried out within the law.

Protests over alleged mass electoral fraud at the Dec 4 parliamentary elections continued in Moscow Saturday, as more than a thousand people attended a rally near the Kremlin.

It is the third authorised mass protest in Moscow. The next rally is scheduled for Dec 24 at the Sakarov Avenue. More than 25,000 people have signed up so far to a Facebook page announcing the rally.