The dolls are a Russian folk tradition and a favourite tourist souvenir. Outgoing President Vladimir Putin has long had his own matryoshka. Now his protege does too, selling for 350 roubles ($15) at Izmailovsky market, a vast open-air maze of stalls that sells tourist trinkets.

My wife picked up a Medvedev matryoshka there this week. The stallholder said she ordered the dolls a week before the election. This might have been an audacious business gamble — if he had lost the vote, there would not be much demand for the dolls. In reality it was just sensible planning. The contest was so one-sided that Medvedev’s victory was never in doubt.

Inside Medevedev nestles a slightly smaller Putin, followed in descending order by Russia’s first president Boris Yeltsin, last Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev, Leonid Brezhnev, the Soviet leader up to the early 1980s, Josef Stalin, Vladimir Lenin and Tsar Nicholas II. Inside him is a figure who might be Peter the Great, but he is so small it is hard to tell.

There is a big debate underway at the moment over who will really be in charge after Medvedev is sworn in on May 7 — the new president or the powerful Putin, who will become prime minister. If, in a dark moment, Medvedev is feeling frustrated that he is still in his mentor’s shadow, he could take comfort from looking at his matryoshka doll. There at least, he is bigger than Putin.

When Russian newspaper Express Gazeta announced a competition of children’s art entitled: ”How do you see the future president”, the entrants proved astute judges of Russian politics: they all submitted drawings of Dmitry Medvedev, the Kremlin-backed favourite.

Reuters Moscow correspondent James Kilner went along to an exhibition of the artwork to see how children saw life after the March 2 presidential election for Medvedev and outgoing President Vladimir Putin. 

The exhibition — tucked away in a scruffy hall in central Moscow — stars Medvedev as Russian president solving the world’s problems and Putin as a retired man-of-leisure relaxing on a river bank or walking his dog. ”All the entrants in the contest are confident of Dmitry Medvedev’s victory in the election,” the organisers said in a press release.

“Strong President — Strong Russia,” 16-year-old Yelena from Russia’s Far East wrote underneath her drawing of a topless Medvedev holding a kingly golden orb in his right hand and a heavy weight in his left hand.  Any dedicated fitness enthusiast would have been jealous of the body Yelena had drawn on Medvedev. His stomach muscles bulge around a thin waist and his biceps protrude from strong arms. 

There were no pictures of the other candidates in the election. Most of the dozens of Medvedev drawings showed him looking presidential wearing a dark suit, giving an order over the telephone and improving Russia — better housing, higher pensions, stronger soldiers.

Other pictures, though, had a different flavour. One shows Medvedev and his wife Svetlana celebrating new year. Only coffee cups clutter the table but Medvedev appears to be falling off his chair.

In another Medvedev lounges on a sofa with his arm draped around a blonde woman wearing an evening gown. His fingers brush the woman’s shoulder but he is exchanging glances with another woman sitting on his left. 

While the meaning of these two pictures is unclear, another black-and-white drawing by the exit is even more cryptic.  “Dmitry Medvedev in his free time sits at home and conducts scientific experiments,” the picture’s caption reads underneath a sketch of an expressionless Medvedev sitting in the dark and
mixing chemical test tubes. 

By contrast Putin strikes a far more relaxed tone in the drawings. Apparently with the pressures of work lifted from his shoulders Putin strolls through parks with his black Labrador Connie, practices judo or fishes.

In one picture a smiling Putin sits on a sun-drenched island. A Russian flag flutters in the background. On it is written: “Putin was here”.    

Reuters Moscow correspondent Guy Faulconbridge was among a group of journalists invited on Sunday to a shooting range with Vladimir Zhirinovsky, the nationalist firebrand who is running in the March 2 presidential election. Here are his reflections on what he saw and heard:

What better to blow away the election blues than a bit of shooting and vodka? And who better to liven up the atmosphere than Vladimir Zhirinovsky?

Especially when he is accompanied by his new party colleague Andrei Lugovoy, the former KGB agent suspected by Britain of murdering Russian emigre and Kremlin critic Alexander Litvinenko in London.

The venue is a shooting range outside Moscow owned by Lugovoy’s private security company. Zhirinovsky, dressed in full combat fatigues, inspects the weapons and picks a giant shotgun. Before shooting he tells the organisers to give the journalists some tranquilisers so they don’t get scared.

Three identical cardboard men — who he says are election opponents Andrei Bogdanov, Communist Leader Gennady Zyuganov and Kremlin-backed frontrunner Dmitry Medvedev - are the targets.

“Three bullets for Medvedev and all hits to the most dangerous places,” Zhirinovsky says as he inspects the silhouettes. “Just look at that - I hit Medvedev! Who else can do that?”

The 61-year-old launches into a tirade about Britain, saying London has always been the enemy of Russia. Lugovoy — who says he had nothing to do with the death of Litvinenko, a former spy — also shows off his shooting skills for the photographers. For the record, he is an excellent shot. Then we retire for vodka.

After half a litre with Zhirinovsky, we move onto his life: is he not tired of politics? “Tired?” he says with a sad glint in his eyes. “I live for this and the Russian people need me. I always wanted to be a politician. I have power, a little anyway, and people need me. The rest are Kremlin candidates. I alone am for the people.”

But people say you are approved by the Kremlin too? “Don’t talk rubbish - you English are always trying to cause trouble. People will vote for me and if the elections were fair I would win. Why don’t you write that?”

Mellowing, he downs the last vodka, smiles and tells me that not all the English are bad. “You have the Queen, we have Putin and Medvedev. But come with me on campaign and then we will really drink. Then you will see how the people want me as leader.”

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5soFcuSrz wQ

This video is an eloquent comment on the Russian presidential election. It is a parody of a televised debate, in this case featuring two of the candidates, Communist leader Gennady Zyuganov and nationalist firebrand Vladimir Zhirinovsky. The spoof moderator says the debate is going out on air at 5:00 a.m. and when the camera cuts to the two debaters, they are both asleep. The moderator wakes them up, but when he asks them to talk about their policies they start reminiscing about 1996, the last time Russia had a hotly-contested presidential election. ”Yes, those were the days,” says the Zyuganov puppet. “And what do we have now?” With that, they get up and leave the studio.

The video is a bit of fun but in many ways it rings true.  This election really is short on excitement. Dmitry Medvedev, the first deputy prime minister President Vladimir Putin has anointed as his favoured successor, is overwhelming favourite to win on March 2. Opinion polls put Zyuganov and Zhirinovsky, his nearest rivals, nearly 50 percentage points behind him. Medvedev has declined to take part in televised debates, saying he could not fit them into his schedule of visits to the provinces. He has not been challenged in earnest on his manifesto. He has given no press conferences, only chats with groups of deferential provincial journalists. The only one-on-one interview he has given was paid for by his campaign.

So why is the election like this?  The Kremlin’s critics say it is because the campaign is slanted in Medvedev’s favour. They say he gets the lion’s share of air-time on national television, and Mikhail Kasyanov, the opposition candidate who could have injected some edge into the election — though he had no chance of winning — was disqualified.

But there is another factor at play that no one should lose sight of. Russians, it seems, want Dmitry Medvedev to be their next president. It’s not surprising really. Russia is enjoying the biggest economic boom in a generation. At weekends, the out-of-town hypermarkets that have sprung up under Putin’s rule are groaning with people buying washing machines, dishwashers and stereo systems. Rightly or wrongly, many Russians associate their growing disposable income with Putin. He has said he is prepared to stay on as prime minister if Medvedev is elected president. So people calculate that if they vote for Medvedev, the good times will keep rolling.

There is little doubt the election is one-sided. Western governments and election observers could well conclude it is unfair. But that does not necessarily mean the result will not reflect what Russian voters want.