Russia goes to the polls 2016: All you need to know
John Sparks, Moscow Correspondent
18 September 2016
Russians are voting in parliamentary elections that will all but guarantee a win for President Vladimir Putin's party United Russia.
Opposition parties - riddled by division, sexual misconduct and facing massive electoral restrictions - stand little chance of making any in roads, despite a failing Russian economy and uncharacteristic blunders from government leaders.
However, a small but dedicated group of democrats are risking intimidation and violence to continue their campaign.
Here is a look at what you need to know about the parliamentaryelections:
:: What are these elections?
Every five years, Russians go to the polls in local parliamentary elections. There are 450 seats up for grabs in the lower house of the Russian parliament (the State Duma), with 4,500 candidates running across 14 parties.
Some 2,000 of those candidates are running as independents.
Elected MPs will hold their seats for the next five years, with 266 seats needed by one party to win a majority.
Official campaigning was held from 20 August and ended on 16 September. There is a ban on campaigning the day before the elections.
:: How many parties are involved in the elections and who are they?
Fourteen official parties will contest the elections.
The main party in Russia is the current ruling party United Russia. It was created by President Vladimir Putin 15 years ago and is headed by Prime Minister Dmitri Medvedev.
It already has a majority of 238 seats in the Duma and is expected to do similarly well this year.
:: What about the other parties? Are there any official opposition parties in Russia?
Well, it is a bit complicated. In Russia, there is no true opposition in the western sense of the word.
Rather, there are two groups of varied parties, one sanctioned by the Kremlin, the other not.
:: So who is this so-called sanctioned opposition?
The Kremlin-approved group of opposition parties - or so-called "system" parties - comprises of the Communist Party (mostly older supporters, nostalgic about the old Soviet Union), the LDPR (a token Liberal-Democrat party which, in reality, is a far-right nationalist party that campaigns for the return of the old Soviet Union's borders), and Just Russia (a leftist, social-democratic party).
This collective of opposition parties is sponsored by the government and provides the acceptable and, more importantly, regulated face of Russian political opposition.
The same is true for the new liberal conservative Party of Growth, a business orientated party led by Mr Putin's business ombudsman Boris Titov.
:: And what about the non-official opposition? Is there one?
Yes, there is, but only just. In Russia, non-official opposition parties have been branded "non-systemic" by the Kremlin.
They operate outside of the government's approval and thereby face heavy restrictions. Their approval ratings rarely climb higher than 5%.
The two leading outsider opposition parties are Yabloko and Parnas.
Parnas (a Russian acronym meaning People's Freedom Party) is the party of the late Boris Nemtsov and headed by former prime minister Mikhail Kasyanov. It is politically independent and faces constant pressure from pro-Kremlin activists.
Parnas members are regularly harassed and often have eggs thrown at them. Despite that, Parnas is participating in the elections for the first time.
They tried to run before but were blocked by the authorities citing bureaucratic excuses.
Mr Kasyanov - who was recently embroiled in a sex-tape scandal - has announced that if any of their candidates get voted into the Duma, they will launch an impeachment procedure against Putin.
Yabloko (Russian for "apple") is a long-serving pro-democracy party, founded by stalwart of the political scene Grigory Yavlinsky.
Additionally, former Yabloko member and anti-corruption whistleblower Alexei Navalny heads the tiny Progress Party, an unregistered party that whilst they are not competing in these elections, they are still an integral part of the "non-systemic" opposition.
And finally, Russian oligarch and formerly imprisoned head of the Yukos oil company Mikhail Khodorkovsky has founded Open Russia, a "horizontal alliance" of individuals and groups that hope to re-energise the Russian opposition.
Whilst not an official party in its own right, Open Russia does list (and fund) 19 possible candidates on its website, including Yabloko Party leader Grigory Yavlinsky, former Finance Minister Alexei Kudrin, anti-corruption activist Alexey Navalny, and Tatyana Yumasheva, daughter of the late President Boris Yeltsin.