Russia votes in regional polls

Sixty million Russians were eligible to vote in Sunday's elections to choose 21 governors, 11 regional parliaments and a multitude of communal bodies.

Overshadowing the voting, however, was the economic crisis triggered by falling oil prices and compounded by Western sanctions over Russia's backing of separatists in Ukraine.

Facing off against President Vladimir Putin's United Russia party were communists and the party of ultranationalist Vladimir Zhirinovsky. Putin's personal approval rankings remain over 70 percent.

Liberal candidates who had links to murdered politician Boris Nemtsov and observers from the Golos civil society watchdog have complained of being marginalized in a fake democracy. Nemtsov's murder outside the Kremlin six months ago remains unexplained, despite the arrest of five suspects.

A close Nemtsov ally, Ilya Yashin, 32, sought election on Sunday to the parliament of Kostroma, a sprawling region of 670,000 residents located about 300 kilometers (187 miles) northeast of Moscow, where Putin's party currently governs.

"We've picked up the banner and we'll carry it further," said Yashin (pictured above while campaigning), who was running for the People's Freedom Party (PARNAS).

Technical reasons

Yashin told Reuters he had little grounds for optimism, given that 60 percent of Kostroma's voters live in rural areas, making the logistics of campaigning difficult.

PARNAS applied to contest Sunday's elections in four regions, but authorities, citing technical reasons, confined it to Kostroma and said the elections were being held in accordance with the constitution.

Not a fair game

About one quarter of Russians support opposition viewpoints, Lev Gudkov of the Moscow-based Levada sociological research center said in April.

"Their influence would be much bigger if it were a fair game," the expert added. "The Kremlin fully controls TV. Regular people simply don't know what the opposition is doing."

Eleven time zones

Sunday's elections involved some 290,000 candidates overall, with a third drawn from United Russia, according to electoral commission officials.

The last ballots to be cast across 11 time zones will be in Kaliningrad, Russia's naval enclave on the Baltic Sea, between eastern Poland and Lithuania.

ipj/sms (Reuters, dpa, AFP)