In just two days Russians will vote in their presidential election, after a campaign that would have been unimaginable just months ago.

Mass protests started after alleged widespread fraud in parliamentary elections last December, and they have not stopped.

Few really doubt that Vladimir Putin will lose the vote, but in Moscow, his support has plummeted to such low levels that Russia's once feared leader has become a figure of almost comic derision.

To see how tenuous Vladimir Putin's grip is on the hearts and minds of Moscow, look no further than You Tube and an online performance by the Russian punk band, Pussy Riot.

In late January, in the middle of the presidential race, the all-female group crashed Red Square and managed to perform their internet hit Putin Soiled Himself before police moved in.

The fear that for years has fed political apathy is gone. All through this campaign Mr Putin has faced mass opposition protests bringing out hundred of thousands of people after alleged fraud in last December's parliamentary vote.

For months an opposition movement that stretches across the political spectrum has kept the momentum going.

Its best known leaders say these rallies were never about stopping Mr Putin in the presidential race.

That was decided before the contest even began, when several popular opposition candidates were barred from running.

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Vladimir Ryzhkov, one of the leaders of the Parnas opposition party, says this all but ensured victory for Mr Putin.

"It was selection before election. Putin selected comfortable candidates, candidates for him to compete and stop many non-comfortable candidates to compete," he said.

"Imagine if you have a tournament where a leader selects opponents for him. It's not free tournament."

Of the official candidates, Communist leader Gennady Zuganov is a distant second in the polls. Even billionaire Mikhail Prokhorov has failed to gain much traction.

But while Mr Putin's backers can still orchestrate huge rallies, analysts say this vote, if it is largely free of fraud, will provide some answers as to how far his support has eroded.

"The election may be helpful because it may really demonstrate to what extent the situation has changed; whether it has changed at all, to which extent," analyst Victor Kremenyuk, from the USA and Canada Institute, says.

"Where are we now? Are we still somewhere in the year 1999 or the 2000 when Mr Putin has only appeared or are we already in another Russia?"

The opposition says it already knows what will happen - Mr Putin will win, but the demands for change will go on.

Vladimir Ryzhkov of Parnas says he expects the protest movement to grow after the election.

"I think that when Putin will come back, people so much tired of him, people so much want changes in Russia that I predict that mass peaceful protest will not stop but will increase," he said.