In Russia, a field of candidates with big dreams

As a candidate running on the liberal opposition Yabloko Party ticket, Kapelyush has received $2,500 in funding that he says he "can't do much with." He counts out every minute of TV air time, and measures every square centimeter of space he takes out in local newspapers.

Keeping tabs on campaign funds is the task of the Kursk regional election commission. Candidates open bank accounts when their papers are accepted and are limited to spending $200,000 each on the campaign - only half of which can come from the candidate's party. For some of the candidates, it's a laughably high limit that they could never hope to reach.

The United Russia Party, which has the endorsement of President Putin, has "such huge administrative resources it is not possible to fight against that," says Kapelyush. "Everybody sees that." A United Russia landslide will mean even deeper voter apathy, he predicts.

On the campaign trail, Kapelyush has a hard time convincing friends - much less voters - that lawmaking in Russia is a noble pursuit. "They are convinced that, once you are elected, you go there to steal for yourself," Kapelyush says.

Fellow Yabloko candidate Mikhail Smolin drives his tractor to villages to talk with voters. He's been in politics since collecting 2,000 protest signatures to freeze production of a Soviet-era gas plant in 1988. "The ruling party is engaged in an unprecedented campaign for power - we never had it before," says Mr. Smolin. "All the mass media violates all the laws, to influence simple people to think that only United Russia is capable of achieving anything."

Lack of cash means that the only people he reaches are ones he can shake hands with. "Sometimes I feel desperate, and full of despair, as if I am the only one facing such a colossal system," says Smolin, adding that the increased control from Moscow is "the main" reason he is running for a seat. "If it goes on like this, what is in store for Russia is a police state," Smolin says. "To govern poor people, one needs a police state. To govern free people, one needs a state under the rule of law."

Many in Kursk say a victory for Mr. Rutskoi - well-known, and for years considered Russia's political enfant terrible - is a sure thing. In his years as governor from 1996, he renovated the Kursk train station and the airport, and built veteran's hospitals and a massive arch to commemorate a World War II battle.

Critics charge that Rutskoi wasted money on the arch project, depleted the city budget, and vastly overspent on roads that almost immediately needed repair. Still, the war veteran - who flew more than 400 combat missions, was shot down twice over Afghanistan, and was decorated as a "Hero of the Soviet Union" - also paid pensions and ensured immediate help for families of sailors who died after the sinking of the Kursk, the submarine that took its name from the city.

"People must elect Rutskoi," says a ticket-taker on the night train from Kursk to Moscow. "He's the only one with prospects."

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