Aleksandr Pugachev is a freelance journalist in Russia for Current Time TV.
Nearly 30 years after the collapse of the Soviet Union, the Communist Party of the Russian Federation ranks as the largest opposition threat to Russia's ruling United Russia party, according to opinion polls. But desire for a robust welfare state characterizes supporters of both sides.
Anatoly Nogovitsyn is perhaps the only politician closely linked to imprisoned Russian opposition leader Aleksei Navalny whom the authorities have allowed to run for parliament in elections on September 17-19.
Russian intelligence services have spied on and filmed Jehovah's Witnesses in a bathhouse, in the latest example of persecution against the outlawed Christian group.
