Russians Go To The Polls For Municipal Elections This Sunday

RFE: How A Local Vote Rocked Russia: Moscow Election Caps Summer Of Discontent

MOSCOW -- Five years in prison for a tweet; four for repeatedly protesting; three for using pepper spray; two for pulling a policeman's arm.

Those are just a few of the sentences imposed against Russians who took part in the protest wave that has rocked the country's capital since July, galvanizing the embattled opposition in ways not seen since the run-up to Vladimir Putin's election to a third presidential term in 2012.

A summer of discontent in Russia's capital culminates this weekend with a vote that might have gone unnoticed even by many Muscovites if not for the exclusion of a slew of independent candidates from the ballot by electoral officials. Instead, anger over that decision led to large rallies that have shone a spotlight on growing public disaffection less than 18 months into what could be Putin's final Kremlin term.

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Update: Russians go to polls after summer of protests (AFP)

WNU Editor: The fix is already in. Russian President Putin's allies are going to do well.