After all the fuss, Putin actually won the Russian Presidential Election pretty comfortably. As I write this, 99.3% of the votes have been counted, and Putin got 63.75% of them and his nearest challenger (Gennady Zyuganov, of course) scored a mere 17.19%. There’s a lot to think about after the election, and I thought I’d [...]
Prokhorov and Yavlinsky collect 2 million signatures needed to run for Russian President
Opposition politicians Mikhail Prokhorov and Grigory Yavlinsky have each announced that they have collected the two million signatures needed for them to enter the 2012 Russian Presidential election race. Prokhorov, who with $18 billion to his name is Russia’s third richest man, plans to run as an independent candidate with no party backing and Yavlinsky [...]
Russian Presidential Elections Roundup
It’s been a busy few days for Russian elections news, so I thought I’d roundup a few of the key stories that caught my eye. Webcams in every polling station In his recent marathon TV interview, Vladimir Putin proposed placing webcams in every single polling station during March’s Presidential election. The proposal came in reaction [...]
Mikhail Prokhorov: Russia’s next Prime Minister?
Mikhail Prokhorov’s dramatic entry into the 2012 Russian Presidential race has caused confusion among analysts. Put simply, no-one can fathom why Russia’s third richest man would want to have another stab at entering Russian politics. After his humiliating failure this summer – Prokhorov announced to great fanfare that he would turn Right Cause into a [...]
Moscow Protests: For now or the future?
Protests took place in Moscow on Monday as people unhappy at United Russia’s manipulation of Sunday’s Russian Duma election took to the streets. Numbers are difficult to judge, but it appears that around 5-6,000 people protested earlier in the day, breaking off into a smaller group of around 1,000 that then went on to Triumfalnaya [...]
Russian Duma Election 2011: United Russia support slumps below 50%
The big story of this year’s Russian Duma election is that United Russia’s share of the vote has dropped below the psychologically critical 50% mark. With 95% of ballots counted, United Russia has 49.67% of votes which, because of the 7% threshold needed for parties to enter Russia’s Duma, means that United Russia will actually [...]