It's been three days since Russia's crack riot police, the OMON, hauled off the country's leading opposition figures into police vans after they refused to disperse peacefully following a boisterous rally on Pushkin Square, in central Moscow.
Since then, the detainees - including Russia's pre-eminent anti-corruption blogger, Alexei Navalny, and Left Front leader Sergei Udaltsov - have been released.
Undeterred by their brush with the fearsome OMON, they are busily planning an encore performance this coming Saturday.
There's even been talk of pitching Occupy Wall Street-style tents on the Kremlin's doorstep.
But for all the defiant talk, Sunday's election already appears to be fast-receding in the rear-view mirror of Russian politics.
The authorities, backed by the state-controlled media, are mounting a concerted campaign to strike a business-as-usual tone - with the tacit blessing of the United States and Europe, whose leaders have offered a qualified endorsement of the Russian people's will.