How Maria Baronova Became the Face of Russia's Opposition

On a warm Wednesday night, Maria Baronova was taking questions from a handful of voters on a playground near Moscow's Victory movie theatre. She spoke quietly and quickly, ignoring a half dozen obviously drunk men who periodically catcalled the parliamentary candidate or her posse of mostly young female volunteers. “Who do you see as an alternative to Putin?” a middle-aged woman asked her. “The Russian people … people like you and me,” Baronova said.