[KarlInOhio]

Russia used to have a strictly party based election system. You voted for the party and a number of people from their list of candidates were put into the government. Then it switched to half party-list members and half individually selected like our election. It looks like the number of individually selected candidates is being increased allowing more risk of candidates with their own platforms instead of being loyal to their party or even completely independent from the party.

I have no idea why that would be the "Next Largest Geopolitical Catastrophe Of The Century".

[NorseViking]

Kudos. The translation was poor but you got an idea.
Echo of Moscow allegedly represents the liberal opposition which dislikes the way Russia is governed including excessive centralization of power.
Now with increasing decentralization and more steps toward accountability of reperesentatives before their immediate voters the liberals are predicting the end is coming.
You just can’t make them happy.