The tents were pitched, the portable toilets put in place, and the wailing sounds of dodgy experimental music filled the air as the festival got under way. But Anti-Seliger, held in a picturesque meadow an hour's drive from Moscow this weekend, was no normal festival. Nor, in fact, was the picturesque meadow a normal picturesque meadow. Anti-Seliger, which concludes today, drew a crowd of over 2,000 Russians, most of them in their 20s and 30s. A discussion forum set up for Russians unhappy with the current regime, the event took place in Khimki Forest, scene of a long-running and bitter battle between the authorities, who want to build a new road there, and residents. The forest defenders organised the forum, but in the end its scope was much wider, and it became a place to discuss tactics ahead of parliamentary elections due in December and presidential elections next March. A motley crew of opposition groups vied for people's attention, from radical nationalists to anarchists and liberals. Ecologists collected signatures on environmental petitions, while the Pirate Party of Russia held discussions around a shisha pipe. A martial arts expert offered self-defence classes for journalists and opposition activists wary of being attacked, and free food was provided by the liberal political party Yabloko. The four-day forum was called Anti-Seliger, a reference to the annual camps at Lake Seliger held by Nashi, the pro-Kremlin youth organisation. The Seliger camps are huge events, with thousands of youths bussed in to hear speeches by the