Transatlantic TakeTo no one’s surprise, Sunday’s parliamentary elections in Russia came nowhere close to challenging President Vladimir Putin’s regime. His United Russia party remains utterly dominant, and the only three other parties in the Duma will be the co-opted “systemic” opposition parties, such the Communists. The “non-systemic” opponents of the regime will not be represented.
The Kremlin tried to give the elections a veneer of openness and fairness by organizing primaries, changing the head of the electoral commission, and reintroducing single-member districts for half of the seats. But these were cosmetic changes rather than real improvements in what remains a fundamentally …read more
Do Not Give Up on Russian Democracy
