Russian election denounced as unfair-- U.S. worries about future of the fl

[Say_What]

<clips>

Moscow -- Western observers criticized as unfair Sunday's Russian parliamentary elections that handed a landslide victory to pro-Kremlin parties and squeezed liberals out of the State Duma, while the United States said the vote raised worries about the future of democracy in Russia.

The elections gave an overwhelming 37.1 percent of the vote to the pro- government United Russia party, preliminary results showed Monday. Two other parties supportive of the Kremlin -- the ultra-nationalist Liberal Democratic Party of Russia headed by far-right firebrand Vladimir Zhirinovsky and the patriotic Motherland bloc -- won 11.6 percent and 9.1 percent, respectively, guaranteeing President Vladimir Putin a compliant lower house of parliament for the next four years.

Putin praised the elections as "another step in strengthening Russia's democracy."

While saying that he still welcomed cooperation from liberals -- whom he referred to as "those who see themselves as losers" -- Putin added that the voters' support of right-leaning nationalist parties "reflect the real sympathies of the population. They reflect what the people really think; they reflect the realities of our political life."

<http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/chronicle/a/2003/12/09/MNGON3J5T61.DTL>

[ellie]

1. Yes,

and I worry about the future of democracy in America.

[aquart]

2. Start collecting useful quotes.

Then we can place Putin side by George.

[montanacowboy]

3. Does any of this

sound at all familiar? the Russian state owned media only carried the "good" news about Putin and none of his "dark side". Oh, my, taking lessons at the feet of the Chimp. It's so ironic - what a joke.

[ninkasi]

4. Sounds familiar...

This sounds like something orchestrated by the Russian equivalent of Tom DeLay, doesn't it? Such hypocrisy, coming from anyone in the Bush administration.