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First Debate Turns Into Circus

The first presidential election debate was aired on February 28, the morning after it was taped, featuring all seven of President Putin's challengers. (Putin has said he won't participate.)

Outspoken nationalist Vladimir Zhirinovsky lived up to his reputation as a disruptor, calling journalist and fellow candidate Ksenia Sobchak a "prostitute" and endlessly shouting through the presentations of other candidates.

Sobchak threw a glassful of water at him (video was shared here).

The incident was a weird echo of a 1995 televised debate between a much younger Zhirinovsky and liberal politician and then-Nizhny Novgorod Governor Boris Nemtsov, in which Zhirinovsky threw juice in Nemtsov's face and the two men nearly ended up brawling.

Nemtsov was shot dead outside the Kremlin on February 27, 2015, and Russians marked the third anniversary of the killing with memorials on February 25.

A View From Chelyabinsk

RFE/RL's Russian Service interviewed a small business owner, Putin critic, and self-styled election observer in Verkhny Ufaley, a so-called monocity in Chelyabinsk.

Nikolai Korshunov routinely posts politically charged messages in his six grocery stores, and says he runs into "opposition from law enforcement agencies and the administration of our small town." (Verkhny Ufaley has been notable for its rejection of ruling United Russia party candidates.) He appears to support the election boycott called for by Navalny.

It's worth a read (in Russian).

Korshunov argues that Putin's 18-year domination has taken a huge toll on his industrial community in the form of lost businesses and lost jobs, and that instead of so famously raising Russia "from its knees," Putin has it hurtling "at tremendous speed off a precipice."

Another Protest, Another Jailing

Our Russian Service picks up on reports that a local leader of The Other Russia, an unregistered opposition grouping, was jailed for nine days for an election-related action at Putin headquarters in St. Petersburg on February 21.

Two other Other Russia members were questioned after the group reportedly hung a banner opposite Putin campagn headquarters that read, "All Candidates - Clowns," then Andrei Dulov was taken into custody and charged.

School Officials Berate, Threaten Student Over Navalny Tag

A student at High School No. 8 in Krasnodar on February 22 posted on social media an audio recording of school officials berating another student for allegedly writing the slogan "Navalny 2018" over a portrait of President Putin and on a restroom door. The audio is also available here.

The accused vandal, who was not identified, denied writing the slogans, according to a transcript of the recording.

The unidentified school officials threaten to "murder" the student no fewer than seven times during the 10-minute recording. They also call the student a "cow" and a "pig." Barred opposition politician Navalny is referred to as "a moral defect."

"Now you explain the political subtext," one school official demands. "Why did you write this, you animal? You live in Russia -- you aren't starving, obviously. Do you know who Navalny is and what [infection] he carries? You are an idiot! It will be like in Syria! Do you at least understand what you are writing? You don't understand anything about politics!

"On the eve of the election in this school!" another says. "Who paid you?"

The suspected vandal said the entire tongue-lashing lasted more than three hours.

The school's director, Natalya Ustyugova, told the Prospkt Mira website that the student in question "is not exactly outstanding in terms of behavior." She said she is investigating the actions of the school staff. Those involved, she said, have apologized to the student and his parents.

"The parents say they have no claims against the school," she added. "We will work and, I hope, such things won't happen again."

Election Selfies In Kuban

Russia's southern Kuban region -- including such cities as Sochi, Krasnodar, Anapa, and Novorossiisk -- is joining a national trend and organizing an Election Day selfie contest. Similar contests are being organized across Russia as part of a sweeping campaign to boost turnout for the heavily managed presidential election.

To participate in the Kuban contest, people need only show up at a polling place on March 18 and take a selfie next to a special sign that they will find there. They must then post the selfie on social media using a variety of tags. Contest rules are quick to point out that manipulated photos or those carrying any slogans or symbols of any kind are ineligible.

The public can then vote on the selfies at a special website that has been created for the project.

The top 25 photos will win either an iPhone or an iPad. No made-in-Russia prizes.

Pro-Putin demonstrators recruited with promises of cash

An effort appears to be under way to boost numbers at an upcoming rally for President Putin by paying people to attend.

An ad on a Russian website frequently used to find demonstrators-for-hire says it has now wrapped up its recruitment for the planned March 3 rally at Moscow's Luzhniki Stadium. The announcement promises 500 rubles ($8.85) to men and women between the ages of 20 and 55 years old.

The tactic of paying demonstrators to attend rallies, known in Russian as "massovka," is not new to Russia's political scene. The last time Putin was on the ballot -- in 2012 -- there were also numerous claims that many participants in a pro-Putin rally ahead of the vote were paid.

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said this week that Putin himself might show up to the rally, which he said was organized by the incumbent's campaign.

Russian journalist Vladimir Varfolomeyev, a Kremlin critic, quipped on Twitter that he'd like to look at the campaign-spending reports.

"I'd like to see the line in there that says: 'payment for massovka,'" Varfolomeyev wrote.

Sexual Harassment Becomes A Campaign Issue

The allegations appear to be escalating against senior Duma deputy Leonid Slutsky, with a journalist from RTVI, a privately owned New York-based Russian-language broadcaster, saying on air that the lawmaker groped her and tried to kiss her in his office.

Here's our story from yesterday, highlighting candidate Sobchak's call for a sexual-harassment probe into the actions of Slutsky, chairman of the State Duma’s International Relations Committee.

Suspicions Of 'Bots' Grow Over Spikes In 'Dislikes' Of Russian Stories Ahead Of Election

By Alan Crosby

When Zmitser Yahorau saw the number of "dislikes" for a Belsat TV story on YouTube about life in a Russian village, something looked wrong. Once the independent online news station's deputy editor in chief saw the data behind the numbers, he knew the problem -- "bots."

After the story was posted on January 30, it took only two days for the video to receive some 24,000 dislikes, compared with fewer than 2,000 likes.

A week later, as the station dug deeper into the numbers, they said all of the evidence pointed toward a "bot" attack against the story, most likely by pro-Russian sources unhappy with the content put out by the Warsaw-based channel for its Belarusian-language broadcast and online programs.

"The proportion between dislikes and views looks very suspicious. As a rule, people rarely click 'like' or 'dislike' on YouTube. The disproportion was evident, and we decided to find out from which countries people who actively disliked the post are. And we got curious statistical data," Yahorau says.

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