Kyrill Dissanayake and Mike Rose BBC Monitoring

With parliamentary elections in the offing, media commentators in many countries would be having a field day talking up or putting down the various political parties and personalities.

Bear from United Russia party advertisement

Russia, which goes to the polls on Sunday, is facing political and economic problems which elsewhere would have the press and broadcast media baying for the blood of legislators and decision makers.

But instead of tackling the many crucial issues, the media has provided Russians with little meaningful debate.

Coverage of the election campaign has tended to focus on personalities rather than policies. The broadcast media has a much wider reach than the press in Russia, and the state broadcasters have shown a clear bias.

The two largest television stations - Rossiya TV and Channel One, both state-controlled - have been showing politicians pressing the flesh around the country, unashamedly giving the pro-Kremlin party United Russia the lion's share of the coverage.

'Red millions'

On numerous occasions, Mr Putin's interior minister, Boris Gryzlov, who also happens to be United Russia's leader, has been shown playing football, scoring goals and receiving prizes for his prowess.

Meanwhile the leading state radio station, Radio Russia, has taken to ending many of its news bulletins with the words "Radio Russia - by bringing people together, we are making Russia strong and united" - a blatant word play on the United Russia theme.

Your vote really matters - let's get the bourgeoisie and tear it to tatters Communist Party TV advertisement

Communist Party leader Gennady Zyuganov has accused the two state TVs of being so biased as to be "more vile than Goebbels".

Mr Zyuganov is fuming over reports such as Rossiya TV's expose of "The Red Millionaires".

"Every Marx should have an Engels by his side, carrying a fat wallet," the TV correspondent says.

"That, it would seem, explains the presence of a large number of very, very well-off people in the federal list of the Communist Party, which describes itself as the party of poor working people."

To counter the TV bias against it, the Communists hit back with an advertisement state TV was obliged to broadcast, in the form of a rap.

"Your vote really matters. Let's get the bourgeoise and tear it to tatters. Rich bastards...," goes part of the song.

At the other end of the scale comes an ad for an Orthodox fundamentalist religious party with little chance of winning any seats.

The party - For the Holy Rus - appeals to voters with a static graphic containing scriptural quotations and The Ten Commandments, read out in a solemn voice.

Mismatch

As far as broadcast debates go, United Russia decided to opt out. Leader Boris Gryzlov is quoted as saying there was no point in taking part as it would be the equivalent of a Manchester United or a Tampa Bay Buccaneers taking on the local pub team.

Despite their frustration at United Russia's absence, the other 22 parties went on air and went through the motions.

The controversial right-wing politician Vladimir Zhirinovsky made the news again for the wrong reasons during the political campaign, according to a report on Ekho Moskvy radio.

It says a debate on the economy broadcast on commercial NTV degenerated into fisticuffs after the cameras stopped rolling. Mr Zhirinovsky was subsequently banned from the "Freedom of Speech" programme.

He later apologised, blaming his bodyguards for the fracas, NTV itself reports. The ban, which had been upheld by the Central Electoral Commission, was later rescinded.

BBC Monitoring, based in Caversham in southern England, selects and translates information from radio, television, press, news agencies and the Internet from 150 countries in more than 70 languages.