To "celebrate" Vladimir Putin's "victory" in the national "elections" this week, here are some photos of the devious old geezer strutting shirtless for the cameras during various vacations with a horse, a hunting rifle, and other butch accessories.

In more heartening news:

Inspired by the recent protests against Mr. Putin, but not content with street theater alone, hundreds of young Muscovites decided to run in municipal elections last weekend. To the shock of many, dozens won.

“It was completely surprising,” said Vera Kichanova, 20, a journalism student who campaigned for a seat on the Yuzhnoe Tushino district council in Moscow. “Everyone looked at us as if we were not serious competition, and we won.”

That someone like Ms. Kichanova could win an election, let alone be inspired to run in one, shows how much Russia has changed since December, when tens of thousands of Muscovites, earlier dismissed as apathetic, spilled into a central Moscow square for a protest against Mr. Putin’s government.

Meanwhile, Gorbachev is rallying protesters back to the streets to dispute the results—or at least stick a big, fat thumb in the eye of Putin's electoral "mandate."

Former Russian president Mikhail Gorbachev has urged protesters to return to the streets of Moscow. His dramatic call follows claims that Vladimir Putin’s voting figures in last weekend’s presidential election were massively swollen by fraudulent means.

A dissidents’ group – the League of Voters – alleged that Putin’s vote had been boosted from 53 to 64 per cent by falsified returns from polling stations and the ‘bussing in’ of voters.

There are calls for mass protests this Saturday.