Protests in Russia over the weekend, after a rigged Parliamentary election that still saw Vladimir Putin’s party lose ground, has led to an additional challenge for Putin in next year’s Presidential race. The near-term ramifications for this open dissent is that it offers an opportunity to potentially challenge Putin in the elections, and one Russian billionaire will take up that effort.

So there I was, doing my daily surfing of various news and web sites when I noticed this from CNN about folks in Russia protesting the recent election that returned Vladimir Putin to the Russian leadership…