Already a whirlwind of accusations that the election was rigged. But, the same thing happened with Parliamentary elections not too long ago with no ramifications. Any thoughts?
Kpt, there has been election rigging since his first run in 2000 all the way through now. The most relevant cases occurred in local and Duma races. But here is the real story: despite cases of fraud -- for example in 2005 there were cases of people in mental hospitals signing filled-out ballots -- Putin is still a viable candidate that is the most popular of the three candidates who always run in the presidential elections. And they have been running -- one a Communist, the other a nationalist -- since 1996. Liberals can't muster anything electorally... there has been tremendous division within the three major liberal parties and many Russians still hate the Oligarchs like Nets owner Prokhorov, who incidentally ran in the election. What does this all mean? All things being equal Russians prefer Putin to the alternatives, at least for now. He is not nearly as popular as when I was there several years ago, but more popular than anyone that runs against him. Oh, and he isn't Yeltsin, which counts for something.
I would have loved to have had the opportunity to party with Boris Yeltsin. Bet that would have been a blast.
