There’s an interesting piece on the Sochi election over at the Power Vertical blog.

Leaving
aside for a moment what the election means for Solidarity, there are
conclusions to be drawn from the Kremlin’s point of view. First, the
victory-producing machine is in perfect working order, with local
officials, police, Kremlin-friendly activists and thugs, the courts,
the media, the local election commission, and the Central Election
Commission all working like gears in a well-engineered machine in a way
that is as impressive as it is frightening.

 

That
machine took a faceless bureaucrat who refused to campaign and produced
a figure of 77 percent support that will no doubt withstand scrutiny
all the way up through the Russian Supreme Court (what happens in
Strasbourg is less certain, although it’s a safe bet only our children
or grandchildren will be around to find out).

Incidentally, Solidarity activist Garry Kasparov told RFE/RL’s Russian Service
that the decision not to have Unified Russia candidate Anatoly Pakhomov
appear in public during the campaign was a very smart one. Kasparov
crossed paths with Pakhomov at a gathering to mark the World War I-era
mass killings of Armenians by the Ottoman Empire and had this to say:
“Having seen Pakhomov and having heard his short, confused speech, I
understood why he was not allowed to step in front of a microphone in
front of a large number of people, because this would have alienated
even Unified Russia supporters.”

That lesson, of course, is nothing new. Unified Russia has been running stiffs for ages now and maintains its record as the only political party in Russia that has never participated in a campaign debate. (In fairness, there have been some media reports
in recent weeks that Kremlin domestic-politics overseer Vladislav
Surkov has been holding seminars among Unified Russia officials with
the goal of teaching them how to speak in public; so far, though, this
effort has borne no fruit and Surkov is almost certainly smart enough
to realize quickly what a hopeless task it is). Its candidates have a
tradition of disdaining contact with voters and maybe Kasparov has put
his finger on why.

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