Russians unhappy with rigged elections and the prospect of the return of Tsar Vlad don't always have it easy making their objections known, especially if they happen to live in the Siberian city of Barnaul.

Would-be protestors had to become resourceful when a protest was broken up and requests to hold a sanctioned demo repeatedly turned down by local authorities. Rather than defy the ban in person locals decided to use toys and stuffed animals as stand-ins - an event they dubbed a "nano demonstration."

Lego figurines, teddy bears, stuffed rabbits and monkeys, toy sheep and horses took up the cause. An army of mini protestors, all immune to frostbite, had no problem standing in the snow alongside miniature protest signs. The messages got straight to the point: "I'm for clean elections"... "A thief should sit in jail, not the Kremlin"... "Putin: don't confuse the peoples' interests with your own interests."









A graduate student behind the toy demo, Lyudmila Alexandrova said "The authorities' attempt to limit citizens' rights to express their position has become absurd..."

Russians are very resourceful when it comes to challenging the authorities. The art collective Voina has staged a number of headline making events in order to get their message out. Everything from staged hangings to painting a 65-meter-phallus on a bridge in St Petersburg.

The toy demo in Barnaul hasn't fared any better than the human ones. Cops tried pressuring those involved to take their little furry friends home... took photos of the toys and wrote down the messages on the signs. They also warned that the event was illegal since the demo area hadn't been rented from city authorities.

Despite the novelty aspect to the Barnaul protest, the message is deadly serious. There is a lot of anger in Russia over an election that was clearly rigged in favor of Putin's United Russia party aka "the party of crooks and thieves."

Stalin once said that it is the counting rather than the voting that matters. The maxim still seems to hold true. Exit polling indicated United Russia had won less than 30% of the vote. But after a long wait, the result came in at 46.5%.

Other irregularities include astounding turnouts in some regions that appeared to exceed 140%. In Chechnya United Russia pulled off a miraculous 99.5%.

If toys can get out the message about the vote rigging and contempt for democracy that is stalling progressive reform in Russia, more power to them.

More from Radio Free Europe

A photo gallery of the toy demo from The Guardian.

Al Jazeera video discusses the Russian election and rigging allegations: