In this Sunday, May 6, 2012 photo, Russian riot police officers escort lawmaker Ilya Ponomarev out of Bolotnaya square as they try to clear a square from opposition protesters in downtown Moscow. Ponomarev said Monday, Oct. 22, 2012, that his aide Leonid Razvozzhayev was arrested by Russian security services and flown back to Moscow on a private jet in violation of the law. The Russian Investigative Committee said in a statement that Leonid Razvozzhayev admitted to plotting with leftist leaders Sergei Udaltsov and Konstantin Lebedev, and taking funding from a Georgian lawmaker. (AP Photo/Ivan Sekretarev)
In this Sunday, May 6, 2012 photo, Russian riot police officers escort lawmaker Ilya Ponomarev out of Bolotnaya square as they try to clear a square from opposition protesters in downtown Moscow. Ponomarev said Monday, Oct. 22, 2012, that his aide Leonid Razvozzhayev was arrested by Russian security services and flown back to Moscow on a private jet in violation of the law. The Russian Investigative Committee said in a statement that Leonid Razvozzhayev admitted to plotting with leftist leaders Sergei Udaltsov and Konstantin Lebedev, and taking funding from a Georgian lawmaker. (AP Photo/Ivan Sekretarev)
This undated photo shows Leonid Razvozzhayev speaking in an undisclosed location and is provided by the Assocoated Press Television News on Monday, Oct. 22, 2012. Russia?s top investigative agency announced Monday that government opponent Razvozzhayev turned himself in and confessed to orchestrating riots, but the man and his supporters said he was kidnapped abroad, smuggled back to Russia and then tortured into confessing. The Russian Investigative Committee said in a statement that Leonid Razvozzhayev admitted to plotting with leftist leaders Sergei Udaltsov and Konstantin Lebedev, and taking funding from a Georgian lawmaker. (AP Photo/APTN)
In this photo taken Aug. 22, 2012, inmates stand during a morning inspection at a women's prison in Sarapul, central Russia. Mark Feygind, a lawyer for the two jailed Pussy Riot band members said Monday, Oct. 22, 2012, that Maria Alekhina and Nadezhda Tolokonnikova were transferred during the weekend from Moscow prison, where they were kept since March. Feygin said prison authorities informed him that Alekhina had been sent to the Perm region in the Urals and Tolokonnikova to the central province of Mordovia. (AP Photo/Yuri Tutov)
In this is Thursday, Oct. 18, 2012 photo, Ilya Ponomarev speaks during a news conference in Moscow, Russia. Ponomarev said Monday, Oct. 22, 2012, that his aide Leonid Razvozzhayev was arrested by Russian security services and flown back to Moscow on a private jet in violation of the law. The Russian Investigative Committee said in a statement that Leonid Razvozzhayev admitted to plotting with leftist leaders Sergei Udaltsov and Konstantin Lebedev, and taking funding from a Georgian lawmaker. (AP Photo/Ivan Sekretarev)
MOSCOW (AP) ? President Vladimir Putin has had nothing but mockery for the protesters who have taken to the streets against him in unprecedented numbers. Russia's opposition, he said, is no more than a gaggle of Internet dwellers with "no unified program, no clear and comprehensible way of achieving their unclear goals, and nobody who can actually do something."
The opposition has set out to prove him wrong by formally choosing its leaders through an online election that ends Monday night. Nearly 100,000 people registered to vote in the election, which is intended to help the opposition present a more united front against the Kremlin and find a way to broaden its appeal as enthusiasm for streets protests fades.
Alexei Navalny, a charismatic corruption fighter who is a rock star among the protest leaders, also hopes it will confirm his leadership role among the diverse collection of liberals, leftists and nationalists who make up the anti-Putin opposition. The elections will clarify "which people, which methods and which ideology have the most support," Navalny said in an interview.
Navalny and his supporters dominated a three-week series of debates among the candidates, a process some of his rivals derided as his "coronation."
Throughout the weekend, thousands of Russians, many of them middle-aged or older, stood in long lines on a central Moscow square to register to vote. Those with better Internet skills registered online. They had to prove their identity either by transferring a token amount, under the equivalent of 50 cents, from their bank account or sending a photograph of themselves holding their passport.
Despite a heavy police presence and occasional visits from pro-Kremlin activists, the event was peaceful and festive, with classic Russian rock songs playing over speakers. The voting was supposed to end Sunday night, but was extended for a day after a barrage of hacker attacks took down the servers for most of Saturday.
Pressure on the opposition has increased since Putin began his third term as president in May. Protest leaders have come under criminal investigation, been called in for questioning and had their homes and offices searched.
This weekend, a leftist activist accused Russian security officers of kidnapping him in Ukraine and bringing him back to Russia, where he said he was tortured into confessing to organizing riots. Investigators said Monday that the activist, Leonid Razvozzhayev, had turned himself in. He is associated with leftist opposition leader Sergei Udaltsov, who is under investigation in the same case.
Also Monday, two members of the Pussy Riot punk band were transferred from a Moscow jail to remote prison colonies, their lawyer said. Earlier this month, an appeals court upheld the two-year prison sentences handed to Maria Alekhina and Nadezhda Tolokonnikova for an irreverent anti-Putin protest in Moscow's main cathedral in February. The court released a third member of the group by suspending her sentence.
Moscow has been the epicenter of the protest movement, which brought tens of thousands onto the streets for a series of rallies during the winter and spring, and nearly all of the favorites in the opposition election live in the capital. Nevertheless, the election indicates that the protest movement has wide support nationwide, with more than half of the registered voters living outside Moscow and St. Petersburg.
More than 200 people ran for seats on the 45-member Coordinating Council. Voters were able to choose up to 30 candidates from a general list and up to five from each of three separate lists of liberals, leftists and nationalists.
Nikolai Petrov, an analyst at the Carnegie Moscow Center, said the opposition has done well simply to get this far. "They started very positive and serious discussions about what protesters should do," he said. "If they can have fair elections a week after unfair federal elections, that's an achievement in itself."
The challenge for the Coordinating Council will be to tap into anti-Putin sentiment across the country. Many Russians express discontent with Putin's rule but say they see no viable alternative.
With few exceptions, opposition figures skipped the elections this month for governors, mayors and regional legislatures across the country, allowing the Kremlin party to sweep the board. Some within the opposition derided the decision to focus instead on electing the Coordinating Council, saying it distracted attention from what should have been real electoral work.
Associated Press
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