Moscow might have been the focal point of the weekend’s opposition rallies but there is proof that Russia’s smaller cities do not lie in regional oblivion, impervious to the tremors shaking the foundations of the Kremlin.  On Saturday, I had the fortune to witness an opposition rally in the Southern Russian city of Astrakhan. Situated in the fertile expanse of Volga Delta, this town of just over half a million inhabitants acts as the Federation’s metropolitan conduit to the natural riches of the Caspian Sea. Whilst the city’s main arteries, the canals which interlace the eleven small islands that constitute its spread, have been entirely frozen in the worst snowfall seen in ten years, it seems that the spirit of opposition has not been entirely buried by the chill.