As Prime Minister Vladimir Putin enters the home stretch of his campaign to return to the Kremlin, he is relying on the support not only of the blue-collar electorate, but also members of the cultural elite, who are helping to market his bid for the presidency. ...

Several dozen prominent celebrities, among them world-famous piano player Denis Matzuyev, St. Petersburg Mariinsky conductor Valery Gergiev, jazz musician Igor Butman and opera star Anna Netrebko have thrown their lot in with Putin. When contacted to explain the reasons behind their choice of candidate, most have declined to comment. ...

Supporting Putin, who is seen by his opponents as an authoritarian leader, might damage a performer's reputation and can become a source of controversy. The liberal media has attacked prominent actress Chulpan Khamatova for appearing in a Putin commercial, in which she thanks the prime minister for supporting her charity that aids children with cancer. Although Putin's spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters that Khamatova appeared in the commercial voluntarily, sources at the charity said she was forced into the recording.*

... Some of the artists who have campaigned for Putin have been able to use their connections to the prime minister to overcome bureaucratic barriers to help with the renovation or construction of theaters they manage.

Actor and theater director Yevgeny Mironov got Putin's support for the restoration of the Theater of Nations after becoming its artistic director in 2006. He said in an interview that only direct lobbying has helped him keep the theater alive.

But Prigozhin said genuine political motivations should also be taken into account. He said he and his wife Valeria, a well-known pop singer, have not taken part in pro-Putin commercials, but that they both would vote for Putin because they see "no alternative." "With all my sympathy for Prokhorov, I don't see him as president and would never believe that he entered the race because he has ideas," Prigozhin said. ...

Ideological differences are important for some celebrities who support Putin because of their anti-Communist views and fear of the radical left. "How many people have they killed, how many monuments they have destroyed?", Igor Butman, a prominent jazz musician and member of Putin's team, said in reference to the Communists after the December elections. ...

Although the majority of Putin's supporters are driven by "concern for their careers", some of them "do see a threat in an orange scenario," said Pavel Salin, an expert with the Center for Political Conjecture, a pro-Kremlin think tank. Salin named prominent film director Stanislav Govorukhin, the head of Putin's election campaign, as the informal leader of the celebrity contingent. "Putin is better than chaos" from Govorukhin's perspective, Salin said. ...

Putin is not the only one bringing cultural figures into his campaign. A number of celebrities, including pop diva Alla Pugachyova, rock singer Andrei Makarevich and film director Pavel Lungin, have rallied behind the campaign for Mikhail Prokhorov. Ghennady Zyuganov has support from prominent film director Vladimir Bortko, ice-skating champion Roman Kostomarov and popular satirist Mikhail Zadornov – who stated that he has thrown his support behind the Communist leader because of his anger toward Putin and the United Russia party.

"Certain members of the cultural elite are acting upon their beliefs, while some are just being bought up by one of the camps," said Yelena Pozdnyakova, a political expert with the Center for Political Technologies.

Pozdnyakova said this applies to the figures supporting Putin. "Some really see no one else whom they could support. But others are acting upon their pragmatic ideas. There were times when Russian stars took part in concerts organized even by mafia dons," she said.

*SITE NOTE: The message from the "charity sources" has since been revealed as a hoax perpetrated by a blogger.