“People are starting to say more and more: Things are not right,” said Alexander Gorshkov, the chief editor of Fontanka, an independent news site in St. Petersburg. This sentiment, he added, is not limited to opposition activists, but is now extending to some residents of the city who generally support the authorities.

Elections “won’t change anything,” he said. “Real change needs to happen in people’s heads. And in the last few months, this has been happening.”

As the clock runs down on what is supposed to be the end of Mr. Putin’s final term in office, in 2024, the Kremlin has increasingly tried to bottle up public discontent by displaying the vast powers of repression at its disposal and vesting power in trusted loyalists like Mr. Beglov, who was appointed last year by Mr. Putin to govern St. Petersburg.

While presenting himself to voters as an efficient and apolitical manger above the hubbub of carping politicians, the 63-year-old construction engineer has had trouble erasing memories of his government’s failure last winter to clear streets of snow and buildings of dangerous icicles, the most basic duties of all municipal authorities in Russia.

As the piles of snow grew higher, the governor — whose name sounds like “Big Love” — gave his officials shovels, which quickly became known as “Beglov shovels,” and told them to start digging.