Late Sunday evening I walked down to Trubnaya Square in central Moscow. It was cordoned off, as it had been for two days; several police buses were parked nearby — down from dozens earlier in the day. Clumps of people crowded at two large white tents. The stage at one end of the square was lit but empty. 1980s music popular with the protest crowd continued to blare. A man, a woman and two teenagers sat in folding chairs behind the stage. They wore the facial expressions of people who had pulled off something huge: exhausted and beaming at the same time. They had indeed been part of something incredible: they had organized an honest and fair vote in Russia. Nearly 200,000 people had registered to choose their representatives from among 216 candidates for the Coordinating Council of the Opposition. The 45 people elected will be charged with devising an alternative system of representation for those who feel alienated by the Putin government.