[CCIP]

For those complaining about democracy - and I am far from a Putin supporter - may I remind everyone that for whatever is said, the support for Putin (and by extension Medvedev) is NOT at all fake. The vast majority of Russians genuinely and wholeheartedly support the president.

For this one it's not Putin (or mostly not him) that we have to thank. If there is one person to blame, it's the oh-so-democratic western darling Yeltsin who killed Russian democracy when he sent tanks to the "White House" in 1993. It's been all over since then.

I think we can put a little gravestone now saying "RIP Russian Democracy 1991-1993". If any of you happened to live in Russia in 1991-1993, I'm sure your first reaction (as mine) would (unfortunately) be "good riddance!" :hmm: Noone wants to be back in that pile of doo-doo.

Personally I believe the election results were 100% accurate. They totally reflect my impressions from my friends and relatives in Russia.

Which is really unfortunate. The real problem in Russia is not democracy, nice values of all sort, and free speech - all that can come later. Russia's tragedy is purely socioeconomic in origin. You'll never get people whose first worry is food on the table for tomorrow to give a damn about democracy or free speech. And you'll likewise never get people on the benefitting end of the deal, the ones who drive Mercedes cars and have posh Datchas outside of Moscow, to care about change - change is BAD for them. They'll do everything to keep the status quo.