This archive report was first published on 8 September 2019.
On Sunday, Russians took part in local elections, a day after a prisoner swap between Moscow and Kiev marked a significant step towards ending the five-year conflict following Moscow's annexation of Crimea.
Despite the swap, opposition protests continued, with tens of thousands demanding a fair vote in Moscow. The protests were sparked by the barring of allies of opposition leader Alexei Navalny from the election.
Authorities responded with a police crackdown, the biggest since the 2011-12 protests against President Vladimir Putin's return to the Kremlin. The crackdown led to the jailing of nearly all opposition politicians seeking to get on the ballot in Moscow.
Analysts say the results of the vote will be closely watched ahead of parliamentary elections in 2021 and will shape Russia's political future, with President Putin entering his third decade in power.
Independent election observer Alyona Prokhorova, a 46-year-old mother of four, expressed her shock at the clampdown, saying, "Moscow is against this hideousness."
Head of the R.Politik analysis firm, Tatyana Stanovaya, noted that the campaign exposed a growing rift between authorities bent on preserving the status quo and Russians wanting political change.
