Russia Train Journey Shows Discontent With Putin From the comfy cabins of first class to the crowded and smelly third-class bunks, passengers traveling to Moscow from a remote Arctic boomtown show why Vladimir Putin's almost certain return to the presidency Sunday feels less than triumphant. The broad discontent seen on the long-distance train journey reflects that of this sprawling country, a prism of its demographic layers. Although anger with Putin isn't unanimous, it is clearly widespread, a striking challenge to his self-promoted image as the working man's hero who is the only leader all Russians can love and admire. Few doubt that Putin, who was president from 2000-2008, will win Sunday's presidential election, returning him to the Kremlin after a four-year stint as prime minister. But the frustrations encountered on Train 109 indicate that his new term won't be easy. The train's 66-hour, 3,500-kilometer (2,170-mile) trip to the capital starts in Novy Urengoi, a gas-producing town just below the Arctic Circle. Natural gas revenues are a key piece of the prosperity that Russia has enjoyed under Putin. The newfound wealth initially pleased Russia's working classes and lulled them into docile complacency, but many are increasingly discontent with the political ossification that set in under Putin and his placeholder successor as president, Dmitry Medvedev. Term limits ban presidents from serving more than two consecutive terms. In this photo taken Tuesday, Feb. 28, 2012, women sit in the economy class carriage of the Novy Urengoi to Moscow train, Russia. (AP Photo/Peter Leonard) Close For eight years we had Putin, then we had Medvedev, and now Putin again. Who after that: Medvedev? Alexander Yurov asks in a third-class car where barracks-like bunks crowd both sides of a narrow walkway. "Well, this is what they're getting from me," he says, holding up his middle finger. A group of people gathered around a little table between the bunks chuckle approvingly. An astonishing wave of protests against fraud-marred parliamentary elections in December sprang mainly from cities like Moscow and St. Petersburg, and Putin has been quick to characterize his opponents as coddled urban elites. But conversations with people like Yurov, a Novy Urengoi construction foreman who plans to vote for Communist candidate Gennady Zyuganov, reveal the undercurrent of dissatisfaction across all layers of society and across Russia's varied geography. In fact, many say the elites are Putin and his cronies. All that matters for the government is what's going on in Moscow and in St. Petersburg. As for the rest of the country, it can just deal with its own problems," Ilya Kuropatkin says in the corridor of a second-class carriage on his trip to Moscow from the Siberian city of Tomsk. Much of Putin's appeal has been based on the stability he brought Russia after the chaos of the Soviet Union's collapse and Boris Yeltsin's capricious and tragicomic rule of the newly independent country. Statistics do present an impressive picture of improvements under Putin. When he was inaugurated for his first term in May 2000, the average monthly wage was $75; it's 10 times higher now. The infamously low life expectancy for males rose from 60 to 64. Although Russia's murder rate is still high by European standards, it has fallen nearly 45 percent in the past dozen years. "Everybody wants stability," says businessman Andrei Khorashavin, traveling in first class. I see Putin as the person that can guarantee that.