President Vladimir

[Co-Chair Bagel23]

I said mostly. Ballot stuffing in some voting locations might change the vote by a couple points, but not significantly. And the only significant candidate they blocked was Navalny. So yes, not western free, but more or less free.

40% of the Russian electorate also didn't cast a vote which may have been because they feel that it wouldn't make any difference.

That figure is closer to 30 now, and it's a helluva lot better than our turnout, (granted there is ballot stuffing in some areas which changes turnout numbers by a couple of points, but not enough to hit 15-20% of a difference).

[Zuza]

Russia has a culture of wanting a strongman who gets up in the face of their enemies and commands with an iron fist.

I hear that often, but I'd rather say that people just don't see much value in democracy (although not opposed to it in principle) and would support anyone, strongman or not, who will bring order, stability and improvement of standards of living.

[smoltchanov]

The ironic thing is that both Putin and Chinese president Xi Jinping are somewhat genuinely popular at home, although the extent that's due to various restrictions is hard to gauge.

As i said - Russians generally value "stability" over "liberty" (especially older generation, for which "there is no war" is a sufficient argument to reelect "tsar" indefinitely). Probably something similar (with even bigger "Eastern" mentality) in China. No surprises here. Again, as i said many times - it takes time to change it. A generation from now the differences will already be substantial, 2 generations - very much so. I like parallels with US Civil Rights movements: first decisions, undermining segregation (abolition of "whites only" primaries, and pro-civil rights plank in Democratic platform) were made in 1940th, but it took about 30 years for Civil Rights position be accepted (and - very grudgingly) by majority of the white southerners. And all this - despite general support of civil rights by federal government, very active Civil Rights movement, and so on. In Russia we don't have a support of central government for reforms now (unlike Gorbachev's period, for example), and fear of even theoretically possible repressions is still strong (especially among older generation, who heard from their fathers and mothers a recollections of Big Terror of 1937-38, and, generally, still remembers Stalin). It all takes time, you can't leap...

[Co-Chair Bagel23]

Russia has a culture of wanting a strongman who gets up in the face of their enemies and commands with an iron fist.

I hear that often, but I'd rather say that people just don't see much value in democracy (although not opposed to it in principle) and would support anyone, strongman or not, who will bring order, stability and improvement of standards of living.

I mean us Americans also want someone who will bring about those things, but we are still very different.

[King of Kensington]

So not quite as high as Putin's buddy Assad's 89%.

[smoltchanov]

Russia has a culture of wanting a strongman who gets up in the face of their enemies and commands with an iron fist.

I hear that often, but I'd rather say that people just don't see much value in democracy (although not opposed to it in principle) and would support anyone, strongman or not, who will bring order, stability and improvement of standards of living.

I mean us Americans also want someone who will bring about those things, but we are still very different.

Again - you have quite different history in 1776-1991 period. So, difference is only natural.

[Strudelcutie4427]

Mr. Putin has won over 70% in the election. He is a great man of the people.

Chad Putin beats nearest rival by 60 points. Virgin Trump gets fewer votes than Crooked Hillary. Sad!

Chad Putin dates Alina Kabaeva and has 100,000s of hot Russian women who want him. Virgin Trudeau is a self described male feminist