Medvedev faces woe from Putin, says Russian rival

MOSCOW (Reuters) - Russia's communist leader, heavily beaten in Sunday's election, on Thursday saw rocky times ahead for president-elect Dmitry Medvedev and predicted he would have difficulty handling his mentor, Vladimir Putin.

Gennady Zyuganov slammed the March 2 election for president, in which Medvedev officially won more than 70 percent of the vote, as a rigged, "special operation where falsification flowered to levels never seen before."

"The country is ruled by a criminal police state which cannot hold fair, truthful and democratic elections," he told a news briefing.

Medvedev, a 42-year-old former lawyer, is set to be sworn in as president in May and has offered Putin the job of prime minister, provoking speculation about how the duo will rule.

Some investors say Putin will keep the upper hand. Others say Putin's will ease Medvedev into the top Kremlin job and defend him against infighting among Kremlin clans.

But Zyuganov predicted Medvedev would have trouble asserting himself over his old patron.

When asked what sort of president Medvedev would be, Zyuganov said: "There must be a prime minister who is ready to answer for the results of his work and Mr. Medvedev will have to keep him to that."

"But I really do not understand how Mr. Medvedev will be able to ask Mr. Putin why the land has not been tilled and the cows are not milked," Zyuganov said, using a typically folksy image.

ECONOMIC WOES AHEAD

Zyuganov said Medvedev would have to deal with soaring corporate debt, ageing infrastructure, rising inflation and endemic corruption.

"This state, which serves the oligarchs, cannot defend the social interests of its citizens," he said.

Official election results showed Medvedev won more than 70 percent of the vote, or 38.9 million more votes than Zyuganov.

Putin, who will continue in the Kremlin until Medvedev's inauguration in May, says the election has held in strict accordance with the Constitution. The Central Election Commission says the vote was free and fair.

Zyuganov, a political evergreen who lost previous presidential elections against both Putin and former President Boris Yeltsin, said he had probably won more than 25 percent of the vote, though official results gave him 17.8 percent.

He said that if the authorities had not skewed the campaign and rigged the vote, he could have won much more and could have triggered a second round of voting which happens if no candidate gets more than 50 percent of votes cast.

When asked if the legal action the party was planning meant it was contesting the results of the election, he said: "You understand me correctly."

Putin signed a decree the day after the vote formalizing Medvedev's role as president-elect, boosting his influence over the Kremlin administration and increasing his bodyguards, the Kommersant newspaper reported on Monday.

(Editing by Richard Balmforth)