In Russia, one of president Vladir Putin’s most unabashed critics has been missing since Thursday. The man, Ivan Rybkin is a former Parliament speaker and is running against Putin in the March 14 election. A few days before he disappeared Rybkin took out a full-page newspaper ad that charged Putin ruled by fear and described him as being “Russia’s most powerful oligarch”. The New York Times reports that over the past 18 months two members of Rybkin’s political party have been shot to death in the streets of Moscow.