"Maria", a teacher in Tver, near Mos-cow, felt ashamed when she told her 15-year-old pupils to join a rally in support of President Vladimir Putin before this weekend's parliamentary election. The order came from the local administration, staffed by members of the pro-Kremlin United Russia party. "I would not have lost my life or even my job if I had not followed the order. But I felt I could not refuse it, perhaps because I am not a free person. Ten years ago I would have told you my real name," she sighs. Her pupils were given Russian flags to wave, but the sound system was so bad they could not hear the speeches. It was not until later that they learnt from television that they had joined in an "outburst of patriotic feeling".
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