Posted on 09/17/2013 8:31:48 PM PDT by Tailgunner Joe
In the September 8 Moscow mayoral election, incumbent, Sergei Sobyanian, narrowly avoided a run off with 51.2 percent of the votes. Challenger, lawyer, anti-corruption blogger Alexei Navalny, officially received 17.2 percent. The Moscow Electoral Commission subsequently declared Sobyanian the victor. Navalny continues to challenge the vote in the courts with truckloads of evidence of voter fraud. Navalny has a snowball’s chance in hell of reversing the outcome in Russia’s courts.
Outside observers may be confused: If there had been a runoff, Sobyanin, with his control of “administrative resources” (the media, patronage, and all the other advantages of office), would win anyway, so why all the fuss? Wrong thinking! For Putin’s Kremlin avoiding any and all runoffs is dead serious business. Any runoff would demonstrate the existence of a real opposition to Putin and his Kremlin cronies and would contradict the narrative that Russia has no choice but the strong hand of the monolithic Kremlin administration.
To understand Putin’s runoff phobia, consider the background of the September 8 Moscow election.
The Kremlin plan goes all the way back to the humiliating parliamentary election of December 2011. The election was supposed to be won easily by Putin’s United Russia Party, but uncooperative Moscow voters turned out against Putin’s “Party of Scoundrels and Thieves,” so dubbed by Navalny. Putin and his Moscow cronies, caught off guard, had to use blatant voter fraud to achieve a parliamentary majority. Meanwhile, Putin made sure he faced no real opponents for his March presidential election. The obvious fraud and vote manipulation sent hundreds of thousands of demonstrators to the streets. The unnerved Putin’s crackdown was directed against ordinary demonstrators, who were beaten, arrested, and some sentenced to prison terms. Opposition deputies in parliament were expelled one by one on phony charges.
(Excerpt) Read more at forbes.com ...
Doubt there will be any runoff. Despite the outcome of any vote ... doubt there will be any runoff.
Sounds like Pooty Poot could use some lessons from the Democrat party on how to steal elections.
Interestingly, he seems to hold the opinion that there are good Bolsheviks, and bad Bolsheviks, as well as good Communists and bad Communists, and if only the bad ones wouldn't kill the good ones.
Exactly.
BS. Navalny is an empty suit demagogue.
A sort of Citizen Kane minus business skills.
It doesn’t make a rocket science to campaign on a corruption topics in Russia but exposing rampant corruption alone doesn’t make one a competent leader.
His slogans are no more than a Russian version of Hope&Change dope.
Navalny is financed by the Nazi Soros. Our communist state department and Hillary were heavily involved in training street protestors in violent demonstrations and voter fraud. Soros hates Putin because Putin stopped Soros and his cronies from looting Russia’s economy. Soros also tried to get Russia thrown out of the G-7. Russia has a standing warrant for the arrest of Soros.
>>>Interestingly, he seems to hold the opinion that there are good Bolsheviks, and bad Bolsheviks, as well as good Communists and bad Communists, and if only the bad ones wouldn’t kill the good ones.<<<
LOL. I think a theory of good moderate muslims is a product of similar thinking.
I'm uncomfortable with that, and think his analysis is personal rather than objective.
Elections? In Russia? Wait a minute, this can’t be....I was told that Putin was just like Stalin. Would Stalin allow these elections?
Liberals can’t be objective. They can’t allow it to face any logic.
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