Election

I suppose I should say something about the Russian election though I have said most of what I had to say already. It happened, there was intimidation, voting inconsistencies, and a wholly biased media. Putin's party won, the communist party was the only other party to make it into parliament.

Germany said there is no democracy in Russia.

I tend to agree. Once more, this time around Russia's leaders really didn't care what anyone else had to say about that. The propaganda is all about the West having taken advantage of Russia and Russia's need to stand strong on its own (Russians ability to view themselves as victims while continuing to ignore all the people they have victimized continues to amaze me).

Democracy dies and the crowd just cheers louder. Somehow I am glad I am not in Russia without any resonance for my own disquietude while simultaneously having any dissent in the Russian people being blamed on me and the US.

The picture about is from Nashi's post-presidential victory rally. I want to call them a post-Soviet Russian version of the Hitler youth. I say this because of their tendency towards violence, intimidation, dogmatism, while claiming to fight fascism (ah the Soviet bogeyman, so nice he is still around). There is a short but informative video about them here.