The reichstag is burning. (Russian elections thread )

Az · March 14, 2004, 16:50

well not really but this is happening.

Do you think it has anything to do with this?

http://www.boston.com/dailynews/074/...tion_wi:.shtml

Quote:

Putin wins Russian election with more than 68 percent, according to preliminary results

By Steve Gutterman, Associated Press, 3/14/2004 15:08

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MOSCOW (AP) President Vladimir Putin easily won a second term in elections Sunday with 69 percent of the vote, according to an exit poll, confirming widespread expectations of a landslide victory.

The poll, conducted by the non-governmental Public Opinion Foundation, surveyed 120,000 voters at 1,200 polling stations. With 21.5 percent of precincts accounted for, Putin had 68 percent of the vote, Central Election Commission chief Alexander Veshnyakov said.

Ninety minutes before polls closed in heavily populated western Russia, electoral officials said that 61.18 percent of voters nationwide had cast ballots. Once the turnout exceeded 50 percent, the election was considered valid.

Assured of victory, Putin was looking for a powerful turnout to further strengthen his grip over Russia already tightened by his appointment of a loyal new Cabinet just before the vote and by December parliamentary elections that gave the main pro-Kremlin party full control over lawmaking.

Putin, who reined in Russia's independent media following his first election in 2000, dominated the nationwide television networks before the vote. His five challengers received less coverage, adding to the widespread impression that the vote was a one-horse race.

''I voted for Putin because he is going to win anyway and what is the point in voting for someone else,'' said financial inspector Yelena Chebakova, 31, one of a handful of early voters at a Moscow polling station.

U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell said he was concerned with a lack of openness in Russia's presidential election and ''a level of authoritarianism creeping back'' into Russian society.

But he said he did not think Russia was reverting to the hard-line ways of the former Soviet Union.

''Russians have to understand that to have full democracy of the kind that the international community will recognize, you've got to let candidates have all access to the media that the president has,'' Powell said on ''Fox News Sunday.''

A frenzy of television appeals by Putin, his rivals and even top religious leaders urging people to vote reflected Kremlin concerns that the lack of a challenger with a chance of unseating the president might keep Russians away from the ballot box.

After voting in Moscow on Sunday morning alongside his wife, Lyudmila, Putin made a last-minute plea, saying that ''much depends on this election'' and that ''the feeling of involvement must increase year after year.''

The election lasted 22 hours, stretching over 11 time zones, before ending at 8 p.m. in the Baltic Sea exclave of Kaliningrad.

Nadezhda, a kindergarten teacher who gave only her first name, didn't need the encouragement provided by a van that cruised around her Moscow neighborhood with a loudspeaker shouting that voting is the way to ''a dignified life and a bright future.''

''I always vote it is my country and my responsibility,'' she said, adding that she voted for Putin. She said he is ''young and energetic'' qualities that many Russians cite for their support of the trim, 51-year-old president, who has also benefited from steady economic growth during his first term.

''We voted for Putin because under him there's been stability in society, in the economy,'' said Mikhail Antonchik, a young miner who voted with his wife in Cheryomukhovo, a Ural Mountains village. ''You can plan for the family.''

But about one-fifth of Russia's 144 million people live in poverty and the gap between rich and poor remains wide, stoking anger at the authorities.

Communist challenger Nikolai Kharitonov appealed to the poor and polled more strongly than expected, bringing in 14.3 percent of the vote, according to preliminary results. Some 3.9 percent of voters checked the box marked ''against all.''

Irina Kozhukhova, a 42-year-old radio factory worker in St. Petersburg, said she'd voted in that category.

''I didn't vote for Putin because I've seen no changes neither in politics nor in the economy,'' she said.

Amid calls by some liberals for a boycott of the vote, which came three months after parliamentary elections that international observers called a setback for democracy, rival candidates and rights groups alleged vote-rigging in favor of Putin, including pre-marked ballots and pressure on students and soldiers.

''The authorities are resorting to pressuring the electorate and abusing their powers to manipulate the vote,'' nationalist candidate Sergei Glazyev told The Associated Press at an election monitoring center he set up jointly with Kharitonov and liberal candidate Irina Khakamada.

Citing monitors, the joint center said that patients at a Moscow psychiatric hospital had complained that the ballots they received were already marked for Putin.

VOICE, a grass-roots election monitoring association, reported that officers at a military base in the Volga River region of Samara received telegrams from the Defense Ministry ordering them to tell their superiors, in writing, the time they and their family members voted. Students at Samara State Aerospace University were threatened with eviction from their dormitory if they didn't vote, VOICE alleged.

Putin did not campaign openly, relying instead on his image as a stable, disciplined leader to appeal to a nation still traumatized by the political and social upheavals that followed the 1991 Soviet collapse.

In addition to Kharitonov, Khakamada and Glazyev, Putin faced Oleg Malyshkin, the little-known candidate from flamboyant nationalist Vladimir Zhirinovsky's party, and Sergei Mironov, the speaker of the upper house of parliament, who has said he was running to support the incumbent. Glazyev polled 4.7 percent and Khakamada 4.6 percent, according to preliminary results.

Well, no surprises, to be honest, the real question being, what happens next? what will Putin do in this term?

Sava · March 14, 2004, 16:51

did he do anything last term?

Az · March 14, 2004, 16:52

You bet your ass he did.

Sava · March 14, 2004, 16:55

like what

Spiffor · March 14, 2004, 16:57

I'm surprised he only got 68% I expected him to fly in the 80-90% zone.

I suppose Putin will continue what he did: stability and growth that is furthered by increasing authoritarianism, that will not reach the levels of the Societ Union.

Solver · March 14, 2004, 17:06

Good thread title - the Manezh, just near the Kremlin, is on fire and is going to collapse very soon.

Dr Strangelove · March 14, 2004, 17:06

Quote:

Originally posted by Spiffor
I'm surprised he only got 68% I expected him to fly in the 80-90% zone.

I suppose Putin will continue what he did: stability and growth that is furthered by increasing authoritarianism, that will not reach the levels of the Societ Union.

Perhaps 68% is secure, but not ostentatious.

Az · March 14, 2004, 18:09

I think that the key indicator of the future is will Putin pursue a third term.

alva · March 14, 2004, 18:15

Good to see btw that no TV stations in Rusland were willing to run any of the adds of the opposition.

Oncle Boris · March 14, 2004, 23:08

Quote:

Originally posted by Spiffor
I'm surprised he only got 68% I expected him to fly in the 80-90% zone.

I suppose Putin will continue what he did: stability and growth that is furthered by increasing authoritarianism, that will not reach the levels of the Societ Union.

Do you think Putin is less authoritarian than would have been Gorbatchev with his reforms?

PLATO · March 14, 2004, 23:10

Quote:

Originally posted by Oncle Boris

Do you think Putin is less authoritarian than would have been Gorbatchev with his reforms?

That's a good question. With momentum running for both of them in opposite directions, it is really hard to tell. A lot will depend on where Putin stops and what the next step after him is wrt democratic elections.

DinoDoc · March 14, 2004, 23:43

Quote:

Originally posted by Spiffor
I'm surprised he only got 68% I expected him to fly in the 80-90% zone.

He's a smart dictator.

Serb · March 14, 2004, 23:47

Blah...blah...blah...

Serb · March 14, 2004, 23:49

He is back!

DinoDoc · March 14, 2004, 23:50

Awww, the little nationalist is peaved people are saying he doesn't live in a democracy.

Nubclear · March 14, 2004, 23:56

Serb shouldn't be so sad

America doesnt, either.

DinoDoc · March 14, 2004, 23:57

We aren't so blatant.

Serb · March 14, 2004, 23:58

Quote:

Awww, the little nationalist is peaved people are saying he doesn't live in a democracy.

Look, boy, I LIVE in Russia, and I know much better than you where I LIVE, and know much better than you what is going on here.
You just read such BS articles and think that you know how things are going in Russia. Such BS articles is your only source of knowledge. And you tell me where I live? Yeah, right.