I would argue that Russia's elections are actually mostly free. Why? Because they have very little reason to rig them. Western polling agencies found Putin just as popular as their Russian counterpart agencies did. He is insanely popular there. My entire family there adores him, and there are very few who actually dislike him. Russia has a culture of wanting a strongman who gets up in the face of their enemies and commands with an iron fist. Believe it or not, some cultures prefer other methods of governance besides democracy. It's almost all that they have ever known. Besides a few points during the Russian Revolution and its multiple short provisional governments, and perestroika (debatable), Russians have basically been under a strongman iron fist rule for as long as people remember. Its really hard and unappealing to stray from something that is basically all that you have ever known, and it takes a miracle and a radical event to actually even have a chance of sparking change. I do think today's election in Russia was real, just with an entirely different populace.
Did you not see all the videos of ballot stuffing today or miss all the political suppression going on beforehand?
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.
They do most of their suppression beforehand. If you can control who can register to run you don't need to do so much rigging.
Still ridiculous to call such a system 'free' though.
Poll
