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Systematic Vote Fraud Documented in Russia

Filed under: Russia

Scholar and blogger Paul Goble reports that massive, systematic vote fraud has now been conclusively documented to have occurred during Russia's recent parliamentary elections, and the Internet has been key to uncovering it. The nature of this fraud is truly ghastly given the fact that Vladimir Putin's party, its beneficiary, was already guaranteed to dominate the vote -- a clear indication of the Kremlin's classic neo-Soviet paranoia and a dark sign of woe for Russia.

Goble writes:

More than half of the registered voters in Ingushetia have signed declarations that they did not take part in the December 2 elections, despite claims by the pro-Kremlin leadership there that 98 percent of the electorate voted and almost as high a percentage cast their ballots for President Putin's United Russia Party. This is thus the clearest and most definitive evidence yet of electoral fraud during that tally that most independent observers were confident had taken place, although this new information does not indicate whether the fraud was perpetrated on the Kremlin's order or by regional subordinates keen to demonstrate their enthusiastic support for Putin. On Wednesday night, Ingushetia.ru reported that organizers of the "I Didn't Vote!" campaign in that republic had collected 87,340 declarations from Ingushetia residents over the age of 18 asserting that they did not take part in the December elections for the Russian Federation State Duma.

98%? Just as in Soviet times, Russia is producing the most ridiculous sort of Emperor's-New-Clothes statements, unable to recognize their ludicrous transparency.

It's not surprising, then, that the neo-Soviet Kremlin is now actively seeking to seize control over the Russian Internet, the last bastion of public protest against turning the clock back in Russia. Will this be allowed to succeed?

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Comments


Artfldgr says:

Tomorrow: The sun rises...

Look at your feet! I have discovered a planet!

sigh.







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