Like in the U.S the Russians are also determining candidates for their presidential elections. But for Russian opponents, the primary stage is not to impress the public, but to get past a set of hurdles laid out by the Kremlin. Andrei Bogdanov, nick-named the Kremlin's ‘pet democrat'; is the only liberal-leaning ‘opposition' candidate to have made it through. He explains to us why he made it and Kasyanov didn't. Read more...

Thirty-five year old Vasiliy Aleksanyan is a former executive for the Russian oil giant Yukos, which the Russian government has been persecuting for the past few years. Aleksanyan also served as acting Vice President for 6 days before he was arrested. Like his previous boss the oligarch Mikhail Khodorkovsky, he was accused of tax evasion and money laundering. For the past two years he has been awaiting trial in prison. Aleksanyan is dying of AIDS, but the authorities refuse to allow him to be hospitalised. He says that the prosecution offered to free him if he testified against former heads of Yukos. Well-known antagonists of Putin's Mikhail Khodorkovsky and Platon Lebedev are already serving prison sentences. Read more...