In Irkutsk more than 400 people held a rally against rising prices and utility monopoly rates as part of a nationwide action. Participants, including Communist Party representatives and public groups, cited rising poverty, unemployment and corruption, and demanded state price controls, limits on housing and utility fees, and a review of the socioeconomic course. The rally resolution also called for tougher demands, from returning strategic sectors to the state to the governments resignation.

On March 21, a rally titled "Against the Rise in Prices and Tariffs of Natural Monopolies" was held in Kirov Square. More than 400 people took part in the rally, among them representatives The event was held as part of a nationwide action that had already taken place in a number of regions. Among the participants in the Irkutsk action were representatives of the CPRF, the Coordinating Council of Public Initiatives of Irkutsk (the local branch of the Union of Coordinating Councils), "The Other Russia", the IROO "People's Control", "Autonomous Action", and other public associations. Similar actions also took place in other Russian regions.
The rally was opened by the chairman of the Coordinating Council, Evgeny Eremeev. Recently, this public activist suffered because of his activities - his car was set on fire. A representative of the society of veterans of the Great Patriotic War spoke about the problems with privatizing apartments in the veterans' building and quoted a letter to President Medvedev. A representative of the Irkutsk branch of the Society of the Deaf once again spoke about unsuccessful attempts to get rid of the corrupt chairman Magalnikov.
The text of the rally resolution:
We, the participants in the rally of workers, public associations, and political parties of Irkutsk, note that the result of the financial and economic crisis in Russia has been the policy pursued by the ruling regime.
The measures being taken by the government are aimed at further enriching the financial oligarchy.
All the hardships and burdens of the economic crisis are being shifted onto the shoulders of ordinary people. The steady rise in prices for food, medicine, energy, housing and communal services, and transportation leads to the mass impoverishment of citizens, condemning pensioners and the disabled to extinction.
Enterprises are shutting down en masse, organizations are going bankrupt, and unemployment is rising. Incompetence, corruption, and arbitrariness have become characteristic features of power at all levels. The scale of corruption in the courts of the Irkutsk Region is staggering. Fearing the breakdown of mutual cover-up, regional and municipal authorities do not allow opposition parties to run in elections to the City Duma on party lists.
The rally participants demand:
the establishment of state control over prices for food, medicines, and essential goods;
limiting the maximum payment for housing and communal services to no more than 10% of family income;
the establishment of a moratorium on rising energy prices;
the review of the results of privatization and the return of strategic sectors of the national economy to state ownership;
the abolition of private ownership of land;
the resignation of Putin V.V.'s government;
a change in the current socio-economic course;
bringing those responsible for the crisis in Russia to justice.
Send the resolution to the President and the Chairman of the Government of the Russian Federation.