In the wake of massive protest marches across Russia, President Dmitry Medvedev has ordered a government investigation of alleged fraud during last Sunday's parliamentary election.
Medvedev posted a comment on Facebook Sunday saying that while he disagrees with the protesters, he wants all reports of voter fraud investigated.
Medvedev's post generated more than 1,000 mostly angry comments in less than an hour.
"Shame!" and "We don't believe you!" were the most common.
In the same Moscow square where more than 25,000 people marched in protest against the election result and called for Prime Minister Vladimir Putin to step down, several hundred people marched on Sunday to demand a bigger say in government for ethnic Russians.
Saturday's protest marches in 60 cities across the country were the biggest anti-government demonstrations since the Soviet Union disbanded 20 years ago.
Putin had no immediate comment on the demonstrations, but his spokesman said, "We respect the point of view of the protesters. We are hearing what is being said. We will continue to listen to them."
If Putin talks with the opposition, it should be done "not with the goal of talks for the sake of talks, hoping that the situation will dissolve by itself, but for finding very meaningful and real compromise," Yevgeny Gontmakher, an adviser to Medvedev, wrote on his blog Sunday.
With files from The Associated Press
