Despite years of fading popularity, the party that backs Russian President Vladimir Putin has won well over two-thirds of the seats in the country’s new parliament. An electoral system that punishes a divided opposition helped — but so too did bans of so-called extremists, doppelganger candidates, pliant Western tech companies and electronic voting, which delivered surging support for United Russia just as key races in Moscow appeared to be going wrong. Social media footage of ballot-stuffing and reports of violations abounded, despite official denials of widespread wrongdoing.
Alexei Navalny
OP-ED
Bloomberg: The real message from Russia’s disputed election
A view of the Kremlin taken during the last day of the three-day parliamentary and local elections in Moscow on Sept. 19, 2021.
