My latest contribution to Pajamas Media “Why Putvedev?” is up. There isn’t much new in it for frequent readers of this blog. Hopefully, it will give a wider audience a different opinion about the Russian Presidential Elections. Also I highly recommend Andrew Wilson’s analysis, “Russia’s Post-election Balance” on Open Democracy. It seems that we share some similar opinions.
Why Putvedev?
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“Mordovia and Ingushetia didn’t disappoint its Kremlin masters. Just like in the Duma elections last December, turnout there exceed 100 percent.”
Check results yourself
In left upper corner there is a link Версия для печати – you’ll get Excel file.
Mordovia – total number of registered voters 657,715
B – 1,541
Zh – 12,814
Zyu – 41,473
M – 551,382
Against – 3,367
Total 610,577
I’m disappointed, Sean. Why did you repeat this “joke”? What for?
You’re right. My mistake. I just checked the Kommersant article where I got the numbers, I miss read it. It says:
It reads:
“Residents of Mordovia and Ingushetia lost a little of their enthusiasm for voting since the Duma elections, when nearly 100 percent of Ingushetians voted and, in some districts of Mordovia, turnout exceeded 100 percent. About 80 percent of Mordovians voted yesterday and, three hours before voting ended in Ingushetia, over 70 percent of votes had come to the polls.”
That’s what I get for writing to quickly and exhausted. Forgive?
In Moscow Medvedev got just 47% of registered voters – 3,285,980 out of 6,998,056ю
Well – 71.52% of those who actually voted.(instead of complaining or preparing slogans for March of Fools aka марш несогласных)
Zyuganov got 756,936 votes – more than total voters in Mordovia!
Same story in Leningrad.
In Хакасия where Putin was hunting topless he got only 60% (one of the lowest) whilst Zyu – 22% (one of highest).
Abroad
Putvedev – 84%!
Just for the record, nothing personal
“That’s what I get for writing to quickly and exhausted. Forgive?
”
You’ll get my sentence shortly!
дума о Мордовии
Registered voters 658,087
Valid ballots 618,759
Not valid ballots 3,087
etc.
At least people at Electoral Committee can count numbers. And I’m sure people at Kommersant do that well as well but … they need a story to sell. They are reporters. But you, Sean? You are – sovetolog, scientists!
OK here is the sentence – 10 years of watching ОРТ (Общественное Российское Телевидение)
PARADOX OF DEMOCRACY.
I don’t agree with this one:
“The real kicker, and one that many Western pundits can’t understand, is that they [Russians] don’t care.”
No, we do care.
But you, “western bandits” can’t understand that what happened two days ago in Russia was … f&^% REAL democracy.
In the last 60 years this happened just two days ago in Russia. I know – this sounds as paradox (I have mental health certificate – for those concerned).
But it is so.
In 1947 some clever guys suggested “No person shall be elected to the office of the President more than twice”. Was that democratic? Did in democratic way? I don’t think so.
Fifty years later some other clever “democRats” copy-pasted that idea into “new Russian” constitution. Was it democratic? Not at all – but who cares as long as it copy-pasted from “most democratic sample”?
And now people (aka demos) wanted Putin to stay as the leader.
Is it democracy?
Yes it is. In pure form.
Western and local pundits: “But we have a paper that SAYS it is not!”.
Putin: “Ok, you think paper is more important? Take Medvedev. The papers says – he is the President!”
As I told many times here – he is much smarter than many of you think
(legal note – I’m not Putin nor his friend nor his admire neither Iсh sprehen deutch)
So what we saw in Russia was 100% democratic and 100% within boundaries of paper.
Putin will continue to rule. And people vote because he will continue. Medvedev himself couldn’t get more than 5%.
PS. All above (as well as below) – just personal opinion.
My favorite statesman Charles de Gaulle once said that “all democracies are fragile and that some countries cannot afford the luxury of a fragile regime. What matters is legitimacy”. I think that sums up the situation in Russia today.
“The turnout of registered votes was an unfathomable 99%, a number that was certainly helped by ballot stuffing, repeat voters, and count manipulation.”
Total number of people with a right to vote: 107222016. Number of valid election bulletins: 73731116. What gives voters turnout of 69%
http://www.izbirkom.ru/izbirkom.html
I did not read your article after that point.
But I came to a couple of obvious questions.
I hope you better check facts in future works.
Sincere yours, Evgeny
“what happened two days ago in Russia was … f&^% REAL democracy.”
When opposition candidates are systematically excluded from the ballot by those in power, when people are coerced into voting for a particular party – it is NOT democracy.
Regardless of the fact that Putvedev could have won legitimately – they didn’t.
Owen: you see, neither I nor people I know were coerced into voting for a particular party/person. That makes my PERSONAL opinion that you speak about some other country. (I’m a graduate student, Moscow region.)
And again, do you think authorities really had to admit Kasyanov to take part in the election after they found 7.5% false bulletins of those gathered by his team? That would be violation of the acting legislature. Why do you believe one side and don’t believe the other when all you have are claims of the sides?
A thing I really can’t understand is why some of you are blindly repeating opposition claims. It doesn’t mean it’s better to blindly retell Kremlin.Ru, but hey, Descartes taught that the way of knowledge starts from a doubt.
He was a clever guy, he really was.