MOSCOW: Fans and foes of President Vladimir Putin are taking their election campaign to the Internet, battling for votes on blogs and websites, far from the constraints imposed on Russia’s broadcast media.

In Russia’s virtual campaign ahead of Sunday’s parliamentary vote, footage of a bare-chested Putin on a fishing trip in Siberia and a reggae group mocking the Kremlin leader are all fair game.

Opposition parties see the net as an oasis of freedom in a media landscape that they say is firmly under the Kremlin’s control.

“The Internet is our last bastion, our last remaining space for open communication,” said Ilya Yashin, the head of the youth wing of the Yabloko opposition party.

Yashin’s footage of a fake self-immolation of young Russians in front of the Kremlin ranks among the most popular clips posted on blogs set up by opposition activists along with ‘Putin’s plan’.

Set to reggae music, the video mocks ‘Putin’s plan’ — the election slogan of Putin’s United Russia party — by showing tanks, riot police and a marijuana-smoking Putin with the inscription “Everything’s going to be fine.”

Opposition candidate Maria Gaidar from the Union for Right Forces (SPS) has posted a montage of footage from Soviet communist party congresses and modern-day meetings of United Russia that is set to win a large majority in the vote.

“There are changes in our country,” Gaidar comments at the end of the clip.

“Freedom of expression is being stifled and the party in power has a monopoly over the political space.”

Opposition bloggers are putting the word out on the Internet about protests and share information on the hurdles that they may face in campaigning.

But blogs like those on the popular Livejournal site pose little challenge to television’s dominant role in shaping Russian public opinion.

“There are not enough blogs to create an alternative public opinion on a national scale,” said Yashin.

A recent study by the FOM polling institute estimates that one in four Russians have access to the Internet.

Putin’s allies are also trying to woo Russia’s young urbanites who have been surfing the Internet for years and are frequent guests to the blogosphere.

The new site zaputina.ru features footage entitled ‘Putin’s Adventure’ showing the Kremlin leader on horseback and fishing bare-chested in Siberia, with music from ‘The Good, the Bad and the Ugly’ playing in the background.

Supporters are invited to join the ‘For Putin’ movement that was created earlier this month to support calls for Putin to say on for a third term as president.

That site and a similar one — Russia.ru — are creations of young web specialist Konstantin Rykov, who has joined Putin’s United Russia party.

Yashin last week said he had filed a complaint with election officials over the zaputina site for failing to disclose that it was set up by the party.

The Centre for Journalism in Extreme Situations (CJES) in Moscow, a group that monitors media freedom, say Putin and United Russia are getting the lion’s share of news coverage on Russia’s three main television channels.—AFP