(Moscow-on-Thames) If you thought Russia’s presidential election was going to be held in March 2018, you were wrong. The voting began today. In an authoritarian system, elections aren’t about who wins or loses on election day. Modern dictators spend the short years between election cycles fighting battles over their legitimacy – hounding potential opponents, reining in the media, burnishing their public image – as though every day could be their last, for the simple reason that, when elections aren’t truly competitive, every day could be their last. To boost his chances of surviving from one election to another, an autocrat must always look able not only to win an at the ballot box each and every day, but to do so convincingly. Otherwise, the almost magical belief in infallibility and invincibility that sustains their rule can evaporate in an instant. That’s why what happened in Russia today is so important. Some 60,000 people came out into the streets not only in Moscow and St. Petersburg, but in dozens of cities right across the country. […]
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