Rural Russians stick with Putin, despite discontent

Voters will cast ballots Sunday across Russia to elect local legislators and governors, and the Kostroma region, which includes Galich, is alone among 11 regions voting for regional parliaments in allowing the anti-Putin opposition to run.

Kostroma, an economically depressed area ranked 79 out of the 83 Russian regions in average income, is best known for the unkempt beauty of its crumbling medieval churches and weedy banks of the Volga River.

Once the heartland of the medieval Russian state, its capital Kostroma is a typical provincial city with potholed roads.

[...] with election authorities refusing them registration elsewhere, opposition activists were left to canvass in Kostroma and places around it, like the sleepy medieval market town of Galich with 17,000 people.

In the 2012 presidential election, Putin won about 53 percent of the vote in the Kostroma region, with turnout at about 61 percent.

Russia’s oil-driven economic boom has transformed big cities like Moscow and St. Petersburg into cosmopolitan centers where you can get a Frappuccino even in the most remote neighborhood.

The main difference is that many young men now go to Moscow to work on construction sites or as security guards in one of the dozens of shopping malls.

[...] with the economic downturn, aggravated by Western sanctions and flagging energy prices, jobs are more difficult to come by, even in Moscow.