Russia’s Opposition Movement Spreads Far Beyond Moscow

Yekaterinburg was the only big city in Russia where Prime Minister Vladimir Putin's party United Russia lost in December's parliamentary elections. January 31, 2012. (VOA-Y. Weeks)

Yekaterinburg's central pond is frozen over in winter. High rises pepper the skyline. January 31, 2012. (VOA-Y. Weeks)

Independent city council member Leonid Volkov promises to clean up the government. January 31, 2012. (VOA-Y. Weeks)

Independent city council member Leonid Volkov has been active in organizing rallies against election fraud in Yekaterinburg. January 31, 2012. (VOA-Y. Weeks)

A sticker on Leonid Volkov's desk reads, "United Russia is the party of crooks and thieves." January 31, 2012. (VOA-Y. Week)

Even in Russia's heartland, one hears mixed feelings about Vladimir Putin's twelve-year-long rule Russia. Pavel Smolin takes tourists on dog sled rides through the forest. January 30, 2012. (VOA-Y. Weeks)

The presidential residency in downtown Yekaterinburg. Former president Boris Yeltsin was once the city's Communist boss. January 31, 2012. (VOA-Y. Weeks)

Anti-Putin graffiti in downtown Yekaterinburg. Three protests against election fraud have taken place in the city since December. January 30, 2012. (VOA-Y. Weeks)

A poster for Vladimir Putin's All Russia People's Front movement in downtown Yekaterinburg. January 31, 2012. (VOA-Y. Weeks)

The Church on Blood in Yekaterinburg is built on the exact spot where a Bolshevik firing squad shot and killed Czar Nicholas II and his family in 1918. January 30, 2012. (VOA-Y. Weeks)

Georgi Persky represents Fair Russia, the opposition party that won in parliamentary elections in Yekaterinburg in December. He says Russia's new independent political thinking is not limited to Moscow. January 31, 2012. (VOA-Y. Weeks)

Construction is going on around a monument to Russia's first president, Boris Yeltsin, who was once Yekaterinburg's Communist boss. January 30, 2012. (VOA-Y. Weeks)

Interim Governor Anatoli Gredin told reporters in Yekaterinburg that stability and continuity are the most important factors in Prime Minister Vladimir Putin's March bid for president. January 31, 2012. (VOA-Y. Weeks)