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RE: dTube: Countless Russians Caught on Video Stuffing Multiple Ballots
I think Putin’s two main political opponents were not on the ballot, one being barred (Alexei Navalny) and the other being dead (Boris Nemstov). So with or without ballot stuffing, a Putin victory was probably assured.
I spent a couple of months riding across Russia, and one of the biggest surprises was the seemingly universal support for Putin. Before leaving the UK, I’d assumed that Putin’s popularity was due to political coercion, ballot rigging, and a heavy touch of propaganda, but that’s not what I found. From West to East, Rich and Poor, the people seemed to support Putin, almost to the point of worship.
I will second that. There are a lot of misconceptions about Russia and Putin. Russia is not a backward country. Putin seeks to reestablish the greatness of Mother Russia in the tradition of Peter the Great, and he is not doing so by orchestrating regime changes abroad. Ironically, he is more of a standard-bearer for the self-determination of sovereign nations than the US have been in decades. And before anyone says anything about Crimea, may I remind them that the Crimean people themselves chose Russia in a referendum.