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[Funky Papa]

I'd particularly like to congratulate Mr Putin for his crushing victory in Crimea and Chechnya.

With 93% of the votes counted, the party has secured 54.2% of ballots and 343 seats in the 450-member parliament, officials say.

Mr Putin said his party had "achieved a very good result", however the turnout was a record low of 47.8%.

The Communist Party and nationalist LDPR both secured just over 13%.

The party A Just Russia gained just over 6% of the votes. All four parties are loyal to Mr Putin and dominated the last parliament, or State Duma.

Mr Putin has enjoyed 17 years in power as either president or prime minister.

...

The two main opposition parties allowed to field candidates, Yabloko and Parnas, received just 1.89% and 0.7% respectively.

Half the seats were also being contested in constituencies but even there the small number of opposition candidates failed to win.

For the first time, people voted in Crimea, annexed from Ukraine in 2014 in a move condemned internationally. United Russia won all the region's constituency seats, in a vote that prompted protests in the Ukrainian capital, Kiev.

Chechnya's leader Ramzan Kadyrov - a firm ally of Mr Putin who runs his troubled North Caucasus republic with an iron fist - swept to victory with 98% support, with 78% of votes counted.

The independent election monitoring group Golos said that "although the level of violations in this election campaign was lower than in 2011 there were many in the run-up to the voting".
It said the elections were "far from what could be called really free and fair". The number of independent observers at polling stations was lower than before, and there were cases of ballot-stuffing, carousel voting and other abuses, Golos complained.

 

[Escape Goat]

At least one incident of ballot-stuffing was caught on camera; officials say results from that station won't be counted.


Woman on the left is stuffing ballots into the box while the lady in black tries to cover her.

 

[Chanser]

This is fine.

 

[Dubbedinenglish]

The approved opposition get the approved amount of votes.

 

[Slayven]

The approved opposition get the approved amount of votes.

and the unapproved opposition?

 

[jelly]

Do Russians actually know Putin and his party are corrupt and just nod along so they don't end up in a body bag?

 

[Beer Monkey]

Do Russians actually know Putin and his party are corrupt or just nod along so they don't end up in a body bag?

Yes.

 

[Laevateinn]

See, Russians love Putin! We need a leader who is loved this much!

 

[aeolist]

and the unapproved opposition?

polonium

 

[Dubbedinenglish]

and the unapproved opposition?

Sipping tea right now

 

[WedgeX]

the party has secured 54.2%

...

The Communist Party and nationalist LDPR both secured just over 13%.

The party A Just Russia gained just over 6% of the votes

...

All four parties are loyal to Mr Putin

So basically he got around 86% of the vote?

Man. 16 years in power sure does wonderful things for finding friends.

 

[commedieu]

Lol. Why do they even have elections...at this point.

Props to people brave enough to run against his party.

..rip..

 

[andythinkpad]

I was hoping the Saddam 99% winning vote.

Saddam is GOAT!

 

[whyamihere]

Ugh, and Yabloko down from 3.43% to 1.99%.

 

[Zyae]

Lol. Why do they even have elections...at this point.

Props to people brave enough to run against his party.

..rip..

All four parties are loyal to Mr Putin and dominated the last parliament, or State Duma

Country is a joke

 

[Olli128]

Yeah the elections are always corrupt but if you go to Russia Putin is almost universally loved - he and his party would win regardless of corruption. Russias not gonna get a more progressive leader until a hell of alot more Russians demand it.

 

[ebullientprism]

See, Russians love Putin! We need a leader who is loved this much!

Regardless of who wins the 2016 election, I can pretty much guarantee you Americans will love their elected leader as much as Russians love Putin.

 

[the_batman]

Yeah the elections are always corrupt but if you go to Russia Putin is almost universally loved - he and his party would win regardless of corruption. Russias not gonna get a more progressive leader until a hell of alot more Russians demand it.

So the population is brainwashed into loving Putin? How's that a good thing.

 

[Polari]

So basically he got around 86% of the vote?

Man. 16 years in power sure does wonderful things for finding friends.

Not quite. Take the Communist Party for instance. They're aligned with United Russia, but still (at least ostensibly) independent:

The Kremlin has been worried enough about the CP, with its solid and durable base of support, to try about a decade ago to replace it with an artificial but totally loyal left-wing party, Fair Russia. But that did not enjoy much electoral success, leaving the pro-Putin United Russia party scrambling in this election cycle to outflank the Communists’ “anti-crisis program” with populist measures such as raising the minimum wage and increasing pensions.

http://thewire.in/34998/russias-com...n-it-be-a-potential-vehicle-of-social-change/

 

[hobblygobbly]

Also recommend people read this article (also has a video on top of the page). BBC: Natalia Gryaznevich's struggle to be heard in Russian election

It's really difficult for opposition in Russia since also there is so much corruption down to every level in the country such as bias in police etc. All young and opposition politicians struggle to try and align Russia to democracy like in the rest of Europe.

It's really tough to keep your head up against that corruption and also try to show people the illusion of "democracy" Putin provides. This boils down to two things, a lot of older Russians specifically, especially those outside the cities going towards the East don't even know what democracy inherently is, this mainly comes down to what the Soviet Union ingrained into the lives of people at the time. Secondly after the fall of the union Russia was in a really, really bad place under Yeltsin and then Putin came along and dramatically improved the country's economy so people still see him favourably, even though it's obvious he's losing that grip since there has been protests over the years like in the last parliamentary election and even this parliamentary election had a bad turn out.

Also people forget that the KGB still exists but called the FSB. There is no democracy or freedom in Russia, it's an illusion, you cannot oppose Putin, if you become too noticed/visible with your opposition it's not good. Reuters has a sort of podcast and they have a 30 minute one here where they talk to Anne Garrels from NPR who was a correspondent in Russia for a very long time, it's worth listening to. https://soundcloud.com/war_college/the-simple-reasons-russians

I know many Russians, Russian colleagues and back in Germany as friends/acquaintances, they often refuse to talk about politics, a lot of them are apathetic. It's mostly because they have no faith/trust in the political system in Russia, it's also why this election had a record low turn out. Any ways it's impossible to know how many people support Putin because Putin within the country has a grip on that, the state media never displays him in a bad light for example. Russia is not a democracy like the U.S or other countries where you can gauge how many people support Trump for example, it's not possible, it's completely warped.

 

[Polari]

So the population is brainwashed into loving Putin? How's that a good thing.

This is overly simplistic. Putin is a dodgy character, but under him the Russian has grown enormously. A lot of the buck has to sit with the American economists and institutions like the IMF who pushed their self-interest ed and ideologically-driven shock therapy post-Communism that ruined the Russian economy and plunged the country into pretty abject poverty.

 

[KillerMan91]

Do Russians actually know Putin and his party are corrupt and just nod along so they don't end up in a body bag?

''however the turnout was a record low of 47.8%.''

It seems they do.

 

[Guerrillas in the Mist]

The LDPR is a piece of work. IIRC, they're kind of like the alt-right that supports Trump, but less sane. Also, bizzarely, one of the first approved political parties in Russia.

 

[Aselith]

At least one incident of ballot-stuffing was caught on camera; officials say results from that station won't be counted.


Woman on the left is stuffing ballots into the box while the lady in black tries to cover her.

What's she putin in there though?

 

[Polari]

''however the turnout was a record low of 47.8%.''

It seems they do.

Voter Turnout in Midterm Elections Hits 72-Year Low

Only 36.4% of eligible voters voted in this year’s midterm elections, down from 40.9% who voted in 2010, according to preliminary analysis by Michael McDonald at the University of Florida.

 

[Aaron Strife]

That ballot stuffing video. Better hope Clinton and her thugs don't pull anything like that.

 

[Madness]

Do Russians actually know Putin and his party are corrupt and just nod along so they don't end up in a body bag?

Of course. Coupled with the fact a lot of Russians like Putin. Nationalism is strong as well as a longing to return to the glory days of the USSR. Those who don't like him don't vote or vote but don't foment dissent lest they be targeted. Putin also has close ties with the media institutions and oligarchs who can control the media narrative much like republican or democrat super-pacs.

 

[Jackpot]

Literally the last polling agency that reported a decrease in support for Putin's party got shut down in the run up to the election.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-37278649

Russia's Levada Centre polling group named foreign agent

Russia's leading independent polling agency has been labelled a "foreign agent" by the justice ministry and says it cannot now work.

The Levada Centre surveys political opinion among Russian people.

Its director, Lev Gudkov, said the move, which comes two weeks before parliamentary elections, amounted to "political censorship".

Laws require all NGOs receiving any overseas funding to register as foreign agents and so face restrictions.

The Levada Centre cannot now conduct any work linked to the election campaign.

Mr Gudkov told Agence France-Presse news agency: "The consequences of such a decision for us are devastating - with such a label, we won't be able to work.

"This practically means the imposition of political censorship and the impossibility of independent polls. It's the typical behaviour of this repressive regime."

The other main pollsters are state-controlled.

 

[The Hamburglar]

considering a major opposition leader was murder in the streets in Moscow and no real arrests were made... Russia will never have a chance until all these old ex cold war KGB dogs are dead of old age.

 

[cDNA]

This is overly simplistic. Putin is a dodgy character, but under him the Russian has grown enormously. A lot of the buck has to sit with the American economists and institutions like the IMF who pushed their self-interest ed and ideologically-driven shock therapy post-Communism that ruined the Russian economy and plunged the country into pretty abject poverty.

In the actuality Putin is running Rusia economy into the ground and threaten to damage the oil-gas production permanently.

 

[aeolist]

This is overly simplistic. Putin is a dodgy character, but under him the Russian has grown enormously. A lot of the buck has to sit with the American economists and institutions like the IMF who pushed their self-interest ed and ideologically-driven shock therapy post-Communism that ruined the Russian economy and plunged the country into pretty abject poverty.

http://www.tradingeconomics.com/russia/gdp-growth

putin has not been good for the economy. he exploited oil heavily (giving friends and allies billions through massive corruption and graft in the process) and since oil has crashed their economy has as well. they have nothing else, and since they're so corrupt they naturally have high rates of rent-seeking which hinders growth and economic equality.

 

[GAMEPROFF]

Regardless of who wins the 2016 election, I can pretty much guarantee you Americans will love their elected leader as much as Russians love Putin.

Doubt this

 

[Muppet of a Man]

.

 

[chadskin]

Statistical Evidence Suggests Russia's Ruling Party Cheated Its Way to Supermajority

According to preliminary research by the Russian physicist Sergey Shpilkin, who published statistical evidence of widespread voter fraud in the 2011 State Duma elections, the natural bell curve of voter turnout compared to votes cast in Sunday’s election suggests that the true total turnout was just 37 percent — a whopping 11 percent lower (5.7 million votes fewer) than Russian officials claim.

If Shpilkin is correct, and you throw out the ostensibly falsified votes counted at precincts with turnout above 70 percent, then “corrected” election results are dramatically different from the official figures: United Russia’s share of the electorate falls from 54 percent to 40 percent, the Communist Party’s support rises from 13 percent to 18 percent, LDPR jumps from 13 percent to 17 percent, and A Just Russia wins 8 percent, instead of 6 percent.

In other words, Russia’s opposition parties could have won a slim majority in the parliament for the first time in well more than a decade.

 

[Muppet of a Man]

Statistical Evidence Suggests Russia's Ruling Party Cheated Its Way to Supermajority

You don't say?

 

[Souldriver]

Congrats to my boy Vlad for winning this election fair and square.

 

[SecretMoblin]

So basically he got around 86% of the vote?

Man. 16 years in power sure does wonderful things for finding friends.

Yes, this is typically the best argument for term limiting executive positions. Even if the elections were reasonably free and fair, it's reeeeeallly tough to go against the only power structure the modern country has ever known.

 

[GAMEPROFF]

Is he still that popular in Chechnya? Votes from
There came of to me as extra fishy because there was still a really big conflict with the locals?

 

[Az987]

There were alot of protests when Putin was elected last time, right?

 

[Nivash]

Is he still that popular in Chechnya? Votes from
There came of to me as extra fishy because there was still a really big conflict with the locals?

Well, you see, if you kill all the people who disagree with you and install a puppet to rule them, you do tend to end up with pretty decent approval from whoever's still left to give it.

 

[GAMEPROFF]

Well, you see, if you kill all the people who disagree with you and install a puppet to rule them, you do tend to end up with pretty decent approval from whoever's still left to give it.

But 99% are still for this very extreme. Cant say which elections it was back then but I thought, yeah, he is not even trying to hide that its faked.

 

[foxuzamaki]

That ballot stuffing video. Better hope Clinton and her thugs don't pull anything like that.

What in the hell

 

[MUnited83]

They should just eliminate the electing process and nominate him the Tsar of Russia.

 

[Toxi]

They should just eliminate the electing process and nominate him the Tsar of Russia.

The pretense of democracy is important for image.

 

[Nivash]

But 99% are still for this very extreme. Cant say which elections it was back then but I thought, yeah, he is not even trying to hide that its faked.

Yeah lol, no way in hell is that legit. Just Kadyrov showing off how he's the bestest puppet in Putin's toy box.

 

[sphagnum]

Statistical Evidence Suggests Russia's Ruling Party Cheated Its Way to Supermajority

This seems correct. It didn't make much sense why the Communists would have dropped so much when they almost hit 20 percent last time.

 

[Violet_0]

did they use the subtle "I doesn't look super obvious that we rigged the election" voting manipulation?

 

[Bold One]

 

[AlphaSnake]

The Apple Party?

That's a hell of a name for a political party.

I demand they investigate Tim Cook! He's a secret commie.

Edit: No but seriously, Russians know they're stuck until Putin dies or falls very ill. In which case Dima "The Bear" Medvedev will just take over.

 

[Valhelm]

.

I wish tbh

Modern Russia is a synthesis of the worst aspects of Soviet socialism with the worst aspects of Western liberalism