MOSCOW — While many in Russia’s protest movement have been searching for direction in the wake of Vladimir V. Putin’s victory this week in the presidential election, a splinter group of Kremlin opponents in Moscow has been drawing up plans for new park benches, pedestrian walkways and more efficient parking.

Inspired by the recent protests against Mr. Putin, but not content with street theater alone, hundreds of young Muscovites decided to run in municipal elections last weekend. To the shock of many, dozens won.

“It was completely surprising,” said Vera Kichanova, 20, a journalism student who campaigned for a seat on the Yuzhnoe Tushino district council in Moscow. “Everyone looked at us as if we were not serious competition, and we won.”

That someone like Ms. Kichanova could win an election, let alone be inspired to run in one, shows how much Russia has changed since December, when tens of thousands of Muscovites, earlier dismissed as apathetic, spilled into a central Moscow square for a protest against Mr. Putin’s government.