Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin t a meeting of his All-Russia People’s Front movement in Moscow on Thursday, Dec. 8, 2011. (AP Photo/RIA Novosti, Alexei Druzhinin, Pool)

(CNSNews.com) – Six years after Vladimir Putin accused the United States of encouraging revolutions to topple pro-Russian regimes in former Soviet states, the Russian prime minister on Thursday made fresh allegations of U.S. political interference – this time in Russia itself.

Directing his remarks at Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, Putin told a meeting of his All-Russia People’s Front movement that her criticism of Russia’s Dec. 4 parliamentary elections had delivered “a signal” to the Russian opposition.

“They heard this signal and started active work with the support of the U.S. Department of State,” he said, referring to four days of public protests against the election results. Authorities have given permission for a rally of 30,000 people in downtown Moscow on Saturday, setting the stage for what could be the largest anti-government rally of the Putin era.

The ruling United Russia party took around 49 percent of the vote in last Sunday’s election. Although this marked a 15-point drop from 2007, opposition activists allege widespread poll-rigging and say the actual United Russia tally was likely much lower.

Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe monitors also said the contest was skewed in favor of United Russia; Putin and President Dmitry Medvedev insisted the elections were fair.

Clinton’s comments during a visit to Vienna that there were “serious concerns” about the fairness of the election sparked Putin’s reaction Thursday.

Police officers detain a demonstrator during a protest rally in downtown Moscow, Wednesday, Dec. 7, 2011. (AP Photo/Sergey Ponomarev)

He said the protestors were acting “in accordance with a well-known scenario” and that Russians must defend the country’s sovereignty against “interference from abroad.”

“People in our country don’t want the situation to develop like in Kyrgyzstan or Ukraine in the recent past,” Putin added. “Nobody wants chaos.”

When the so-called “color revolutions” saw Kremlin-backed regimes fall in Ukraine, Georgia and Kyrgyzstan between 2003 and 2005 Putin – then president – accused U.S.-supported non-governmental organizations (NGOs) of fanning the flames.

At the time the Bush administration, while calling for greater democratization, denied involvement, saying the uprisings were home-grown reactions to despotic rule.

Georgia’s “Rose revolution” in late 2003, Ukraine’s “Orange revolution” the following year and Kyrgyzstan’s “Tulip revolution” in 2005 deprived Moscow of three allies in its backyard, paving the way, in the case of Ukraine and Georgia, for Western-leaning governments keen to join NATO.

(Kyrgyzstan’s transition was rougher, with the new president accused of breaking election promises and edging back to Moscow’s orbit. A violent crackdown on protests in 2010 eventually led to President Kurmanbek Bakiyev’s ouster, and ironically he blamed Russia. Bakiyev had angered Putin by not following through on a pledge to shut down a U.S. air base used to support coalition operations in Afghanistan.)

With the color revolutions still fresh in his mind, Putin in 2006 signed a law clamping down on NGOs operating in Russia and threatened to suspend any viewed as posing a risk to “Russia’s sovereignty or independence.” The move came ahead of parliamentary elections in 2007 and presidential polls the following year, won by Putin’s hand-picked successor, Medvedev.

Now Putin and Medvedev are planning to exchange roles again, in a maneuver that will enable Putin – who was president from 2000-2008 – to run the country for another 12 years. Presidential elections are scheduled for March, and Putin on Wednesday formally filed his candidacy papers.

‘Russian spring’

Organized via blogs and social networking sites, thousands of Russians protested the election results in Moscow on Monday, with a smaller demonstration held on Tuesday, when pro-Kremlin youth activists also held a rally.

More small protests took place on Wednesday, and human rights groups claim that around one thousand people, including opposition leaders, have been detained during the course of the week.

Inevitably, the term “Russian spring” is being used by some opposition leaders. U.S. Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.), a longstanding critic of Putin, said on his Twitter account, “Dear Vlad, The ArabSpring is coming to a neighborhood near you.”

Among the leading critics of the election was an independent election monitoring group Golos, which reported receiving more than 5,000 complaints of voting irregularities.

Golos receives U.S. and European Union funding and is the type of institution Putin was targeting with his accusations against “those who take orders from foreign states to influence internal political processes.”

State Department spokesman Mark Toner said Thursday that U.S.-funded programs in Russia and other countries “are designed to support a more transparent, free and fair electoral process.”

“They’re not about favoring any political group or any political agenda more than any other agenda,” he said. “Our focus in any kind of assistance to these NGOs, whether it be in Russia or elsewhere in the world, is about ensuring or strengthening the political or the democratic process.”

Speaking in Brussels, Clinton said the U.S. values its relationship with Russia but also has “a strong commitment to democracy and human rights.”

“We are supportive of the rights and aspirations of the Russian people to be able to make progress and to realize a better future for themselves, and we hope to see that unfold in the years ahead,” she said.