La Russie divisée de Poutine

Texte du Chicago Tribune de ce matin.

"It's embarrassing enough to do poorly in an honest election. Putin's party managed to crater despite vigorous measures to rig the vote. In the province of Chechnya, United Russia somehow garnered 99 percent at the polls.

In the city of Rostov-on-Don, state TV reported its share of the vote at 146 percent.

Putin and his sidekick, President Dmitry Medvedev, defended the integrity of the election, but they were a tiny chorus. Opposition groups posted video of ballot-stuffing and other tactics that would make a Chicago precinct captain smile. One man said he was paid to cast 45 ballots for United Russia.

A Russian election watchdog group, Golos, said United Russia "achieved the majority mandate by falsification." International observers from the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe found "frequent procedural violations and instances of apparent manipulation."

They reported, "The contest was also slanted in favor of the ruling party, the election administration lacked independence, most media were partial and state authorities interfered unduly at different levels." Oh, in case Putin is reading: They didn't mean that as praise."

http://www.realclearpolitics.com/articles/2011/12/15/vladimir_putins_divided_russia_112405.html