In other words, journalists who want to report on the elections and candidates have to limit themselves the straight facts, and even that might be too much.

"How are they going to write about the elections? They're not. By law, they don't have a right to," said Galina Arapova, director of a media rights centre in the city of Voronezh.

The controversial laws, which were revised last year, don’t seem to apply to all news outlets though.

"While election legislation in Russia provides equal media access for all political protagonists, in reality the ruling party dominates the airwaves," said Luc Van den Brande, head of a delegation from the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe.

According to the head of Russia's Central Elections Committee, Vladimir Churov (who happens to be an ally of President Vladimir Putin), the printed press is free to provide real reporting about the elections and candidates.

"Voters sometimes ask me why they're not allowed to criticise. I tell them: ‘Please criticise away.' It's forbidden only on television and radio, but in the press, in analyses, go right ahead," Churov said.

The realities seem far removed from Churov’s words though.

"When you get stuck into how things really are, when you see unemployed people drinking, when you see young people taking drugs, you feel so bad that you can't not write about it," said Boris Vaulin, a journalist in Voronezh.

Libel suits, threats, financial or moral pressures, the attacks on the free press are numerous in Russia, a little over a year after Novaya Gazeta investigative journalist Anna Politkovskaya was murdered (the paper’s editor, Dmitry Muratov, just received the International Press Freedom Award). 47 journalists were killed, in relation to their work, since 1992, 14 of whom were killed since Putin took power in 2000.

"It's a dangerous profession and getting more dangerous," said Vladimir Tulupov, dean of the 1,600-student journalism faculty at Voronezh University.

Especially with the upcoming elections.

Source: AFP Mail