By Davywavy, previously published (19/3/18) on Russia Insider.
See also: 2018 Russian Presidential Election | RT, Russia Election Outcome Explained in Plain Simple English (19/3/18) | Russia Insider, 'Dictator' Putin Wins 'Fraud-Tainted' Vote: Western Media Sticks to Form (19/3/18) | Russia Insider.
The extent of Russian influence in Russia's election is already under scrutiny, with experts suggesting that a large proportion of the votes may have been cast by Russians.
Vladimir Putin has been accused of 'undue influence' in Russian elections after they were won by his preferred candidate, himself.
"It's a concern that Russia keeps cropping up in elections, Brexit, Trump, now even in Russia itself. Everywhere you look Putin is involved," said election analyst Simon Williams.
"We're looking into the possibility that people close to the Kremlin, such as the population of Moscow, may have aided Putin in his attempts to swing the elections in his favour –largely by voting for him.
“We've even seen video footage of him walking into a polling station, bold as brass, and voting for himself. How he can get away with that in this day and age is a global disgrace."
Not everyone is sure that Putin was involved in the outcome, with veteran Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn calling for 'more evidence' before he's sure Putin was involved in his own victory.
"I think we need to wait until things are clearer," he said over footage of a smiling Vladimir Putin walking through the door of the Kremlin and sitting back down on his big gold-and-polonium throne.
However, Putin is unrepentant, insisting that he could have got a far higher proportion of the votes.
"I could easily have got millions more votes," he told us. “All I needed to do was ask Diane Abbott to count them."
Source: NewsThump
Postscript: The introduction to this article was #comment-285964">posted as a comment to the Monday Message Board of 19/3/18 on JohnQuiggin.com. Professor John Quiggin responded: "Fortunately, in Russia there’s no hacking needed. Putin can just prevent his opponents from running."
The Washington Post article that Professor Quiggin linked to was about Alexei Navalny, who was prevented from standing by Russia's Central Elections Commission and the Russian Supreme Court because he was serving a six year suspended sentence for his role in a $500,000 embezzlement scheme involving the international cosmetics company Yves Rocher.
Add comment