Russia polls test Kremlin party's hold on power
Voters across Russia are actually casting their ballots in dozens of neighborhood elections that have emerged as a big check for the ruling pro-Kremlin United Russia party.
Nearly 160,000 prospects are vying for seats in local parliaments. Governors happen to be also being elected in lots of regions.
The polls come only weeks following the suspected poisoning of opposition leader Alexei Navalny with Novichok.
His staff allege this is done on the orders of President Vladimir Putin - the Kremlin denies any involvement.
Mr Navalny, who fell ill on 20 August in Russia, is now being treated in Germany. The other day, doctors in Berlin's Charité medical center said he was out of an induced coma and his condition improved.
Mr Navalny have been backing major challengers to United Russia, describing it as the "party of crooks and thieves".
His team have already been urging Russians to vote tactically to channel support towards candidates best put to defeat United Russia.
In some places, these are people associated with Mr Navalny himself, while in other areas they are communist or nationalist challengers, the BBC's Sarah Rainsford in Moscow reviews.
Mr Navalny's camp believes this plan could be why he was attacked, our correspondent says.
She adds that United Russia has become increasingly unpopular, associated with a controversial pension reform, falling incomes - and corruption.
Russia's electoral commission allowed early voting on 11-12 September as a result of the coronavirus outbreak.
But Sunday is the key day time for tens of an incredible number of voters across 11 period zones, with more than 56,000 polling stations prepared.
These are the first elections since controversial constitutional reforms were approved found in a good July referendum allowing Mr Putin in which to stay power until 2036.
They are also regarded as a dry out run for elections to the national parliament next year.
This past year, mass protests were held in the capital Moscow, following a exclusion of many opposition candidates from an area election.
The authorities were then accused of a heavy-handed response to the rallies, which saw some of a lot more than 1,000 people arrested receive sentences as high as four years in prison.
