nomination, but after a call f

nomination, but after a call from

o is in charge of Moscow’s main Covid-19 hospital and a symbol of the fight against the coronavirus.

He initially refused the nomination, but after a call from President Vladimir Putin, the 46-year-old stepped forward.

Another new name is Maria Butina, who in 2018 was sentenced to 18 months in prison in the United States for illegally acting as a foreign agent for Russia.

After her deportation, the 32-year-old gun rights activist became a frequent guest on state television and now co-hosts a show on RT, a Kremlin-funded TV channel.

This year, she took a film crew to the prison of Kremlin critic Alexei Navalny — then on hunger strike and demanding medical care — comparing his conditions in jail to a summer camp.

Struggling opposition

Nearly all vocal Kremlin critics were barred. Ahead of the polls, organisations linked to top Putin critic Navalny were labelled “extremist”, preventing his allies from balloting.

Navalny himself barely survived poisoning by nerve agent last summer and was jailed on old fraud charges in February.

Kremlin critic Andrei Pivovarov, who is running for parliament, was hauled off a flight and detained.

The 39-year-old campaigned from behind bars in the southern city of Krasnodar, with the help of his lawyer and volunteers.

The former executive director of the now-disbanded group of Putin critics Open Russia, Mikhail Khodorkovsky, faces up to six years in prison for his involvement in an “undesirable” organisation.

Darya Artamonova, 19, an independent candidate running for city council in the Siberian town of Berdsk, said she has received numerous threats, including a funeral wreath sent to her parents.

Spoilers

The use of spoilers — non-winning, often similarly named candidates who run to weaken support for a popular politician — is a common tactic.

In Saint Petersburg, the ploy was taken to the extreme.

Opposition politician Boris Vishnevsky, who is running for re-election to the regional parliament in Russia’s second city, is competing against two others named “Boris Vishnevsky” and who, like him, are balding and sport a short salt-and-pepper beard.

Moscow-based opposition politician Ilya Yashin, who was barred from ru