ST. PETERSBURG, Russia – Pensioners and veterans angered over the cutoff of welfare benefits clogged streets and paralyzed traffic in St. Petersburg, hometown to President Putin, for a second day yesterday and the street demonstrations spread to other Russian cities.

Top government officials sought to shift the blame by accusing regional leaders of botching the management of new social programs, under which benefits such as free medicine and public transportation were replaced by a monthly government stipend.

Though St. Petersburg authorities promised to restore some benefits after 10,000 people jammed the center of Russia’s second-largest city on Saturday, demonstrators returned yesterday to rally on Nevsky Prospect, again snarling traffic in the center of the city.

“Hitler stole our childhood, and Putin stole our declining years,” declared a banner held aloft by one the aging protesters.

Others waved red flags, beat spoons against saucepans, and chanted slogans calling for Mr. Putin to step down. Since the new social benefits program went into effect January 1, the protests have spread to several cities across Russia’s 11 time zones. Retirees were in the streets of the Volga River-city of Samara for a fifth day yesterday, and a rally in the southern city of Stavropol drew up to 5,000 people.

Many of the elderly, already complaining they are treated like second-class citizens, consider the changes a final insult as they struggle to survive on meager pensions in inflationary and capitalist Russia. Those affected by the new program lived most of their lives under a cradle-to-grave welfare system until the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991.

“Prices keep rising, and now they have canceled our benefits,” said Yevgeniya Sidorova, 70. “Putin and his government want us to lie down and wait for death to come.”

Alexander Zukov, the first deputy prime minister, and Boris Gryzlov, the Parliament speaker, appeared on state controlled Rossiya TV late yesterday to defend the social reform bill and blamed provincial authorities. “It’s quite natural that people are angry,” Mr. Zhukov said.

But protesters say new monthly payments of about $10 are worth far less than the lost benefits, leaving the elderly to choose between food, transport, and medicine. “It’s an outrage,” said Nina Kuzmina, 65. “The government must step down and face justice.”

Galina Tolmacheva, 67, said the benefit cuts amounted to “the second siege” of the city, referring to the 900-day Nazi siege of Leningrad, as St. Petersburg was known, during the World War II that killed more than half a million residents.

Many pledged to keep protesting until benefits were restored and pensions were increased. An average monthly pension is now worth about $80.

Several small orange tents went up at the rally in St. Petersburg. Orange was the symbolic color of the campaign run by President Yushchenko whose backers occupied central Kiev for weeks and won a court decision to hold a new vote that was won by their candidate.