A teacher went on trial Wednesday after publicly claiming that she was pressured to help rig Russia's parliamentary election to boost the results for Vladimir Putin's party.

Like many teachers and principals in Russia, Tatyana Ivanova was in charge of a polling station set up in the school where she worked.

She accused Natalya Nazarova, an education department official in St. Petersburg, of pressuring her and other poll workers to falsify the vote and instructing them on how to do it.

Ivanova now faces charges of damaging the education official's professional reputation and, if found guilty, could be ordered to pay compensation of up to 100,000 rubles, or about $3,300.

Putin's United Russia party won the December election and managed to cling to its majority in parliament, although observers reported widespread fraud. Anger over the manipulated vote set off a series of mass protests against Putin, the first he had faced in more than 12 years in power.