Russian President Dmitry Medvedev on Saturday...

He told Deputy Prime Minister Dmitry Kozak to freeze the soaring utility prices and fire officials responsible for unjustified tariff hikes.

Kozak said that following a recent check, which had revealed massive violations, housing maintenance and utility tariffs were lowered in 1,046 out of 15,000 municipalities throughout the country.

On Friday about 400 people protested utility price hikes in the southwestern Russian city of Saratov. Demonstrators said their utility tariffs had nearly doubled in the last year.

They also demanded the immediate resignation of Saratov Governor Vyacheslav Somov and began collecting signatures for a petition demanding the resignation of Prime Minister Vladimir Putin and President Dmitry Medvedev, RFE/RL"s Russian Service reported.

MOSCOW, March 27 (RIA Novosti)