Putin's Chosen Successor Chosen by Russians

[Wretched Excess]

Putin's Chosen Successor Chosen by Russians
Until Recently Unknown, Medvedev Wins More Than Two-Thirds of Vote



Russians across 11 time zones voted today in what looked like an ordinary election. And in many respects it was.

In central Moscow, a steady flow of people from the local area came into the polling station to vote. It was all very orderly; there were no visible irregularities -- no intimidation or interference from party apparatchiks -- all very above board and normal.

At least at this level, there was no question that these elections were free; the question is how fair were they ever going to be.

There was only ever one candidate who was going to win this race. Indeed there was only really one proper candidate -- Dimitri Medvedev.

Even before the election, there was no doubt in or outside Russia that he would emerge from the election as the new president, all because he was all but annointed by current President Vladimir Putin.

Late this evening the Central Election Commission said that with ballots from two-thirds of the country's electoral precincts counted, Medvedev had received 69 percent of the vote. His closest rival was Communist Party chief Gennady Zyuganov, who had just 18 percent.

Analysts and opposition politicians have been scathing in their criticism of the process.

Former Prime Minister Mikhail Kasyanov dismissed the elections as a fraud.

"It is just an imitation of the important democratic institution with the name 'free and fair democratic elections,'" he said. "That is not the case in Russia right now. It means on top of not having a legitimate parliament, very soon we'll have an illegitimate president."

And according to Garry Kasparov -- leader of the Other Russia opposition group and former world chess champion -- they "are not paying attention even to the formalities and they eliminated the whole process which is now one big fake".

The reason for such critique lies in the nature of Medvedev's candidacy. He is a 42-year-old former lawyer who, up until a few years ago, was relatively unknown.

The key to his success? Being the hand-picked successor of the incredibly popular President Putin.

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doesn't sound like much of an election . . . .

[Chris_]

It doesn't really help that he's dressed like one of the villain's henchmen from a James Bond movie.