Big Brother is back

by Sarah Hurst Vladimir Putin looked to be awarding himself around 74 percent of the vote in his spectacularly fraudulent election today, a big increase on his relatively modest 63 percent in 2012. With about 40 percent of the votes counted, the triumphant president briefly appeared on stage […]

Putin’s shameless fraud is under way

by Sarah Hurst Vladimir Putin has been pulling out all the stops today to secure an overwhelming election victory. Fraud has been even more blatant than anticipated, with members of local electoral commissions from Dagestan to Yakutia caught on polling station videos stuffing ballots into ballot boxes. At […]

Navalny shows vote-rigging rife

by Sarah Hurst A volunteer with Alexei Navalny’s campaign has obtained three voter registration slips from different polling stations in Moscow, Navalny said on a video published on Tuesday. Ilya Pakhomov got the slips in the space of 30 minutes and could have got many more if he […]

Navalny’s supporters in St. Petersburg jailed

by Sarah Hurst Five supporters of Alexei Navalny in St. Petersburg were given jail sentences today, ostensibly for “violations” during the protest against Vladimir Putin’s rigged re-election on January 28. Alexander Mironov was jailed for 15 days, Yekaterina Shlikhta, Ilya Gantvarg and Viktor Cherkassky for 10 days, and […]

Putin holds a dictator’s rally

by Sarah Hurst Vladimir Putin held a “For a strong Russia” rally at Moscow’s Luzhniki Stadium today, a venue which will also host the World Cup final in July. There were multiple reports of state employees being bribed and cajoled to attend, including a tweet by reporter Marc […]