+ From Moscow News

Campaigns: The Seamy Side. - Presidential elections can land you an apartment or - a conviction for hooliganism

recent State Duma election, Viktor Nikolaevich Kubyshkin, my next-door neighbor, bought a winter set of tires for his Moskvich sedan. His wife, Vera Pavlovna, bought herself a new pair of shoes and a fur hat. All residents in this section of the building know where the elderly couple’s extra income came from. Throughout last fall, the neighbors had been sweeping out election campaign leaflets promoting the Social Justice Party that the couple had been distributing.