Russian election

[Doug Henwood]

A friend writes from Moscow: "The way everyone has been saying it's a 
triumph for democracy is crap -- Unity doesn't even have a party 
headquarters -- it's a complete puppet and its success is very 
depressing to me. It means voters can be totally manipulated: just 
dress the PM in a pinstriped suit, start a war, and the most massive 
machine in the entire country practically gets first place. The real 
triumph for democracy will be when the Kremlin is challenged, allows 
elections to go through, and loses."