Gazprom elects a president. Whatever.
"What can you tell me about the man who's going to be Mr. Putin's successor?" asked Tim Russert of Hillary Clinton during Tuesday evening's Democratic candidate debate. Senator Clinton responded well: "I have no doubt, as president, even though technically the meetings may be with the man who is labeled as president, the decisions will be made by Putin." But that wasn't enough for Russert, who then asked, "Who will it be? Do you know his name?"
The usual suspects are still smirking at Clinton's attempts to pronounce "Medvedev" and Russia Today weighed in when she finally gave up and said "whatever". Picking up the thread in the Guardian, Timothy Garton Ash tried a rare a stab at humour: "This presidential election is such a cliffhanger. Will it be the rising star Dmitry 'Obamovich' Medvedev? Or the veteran Gennady 'McCainovich' Zyuganov? Aren't we on the edge of our seats, nervously checking the latest opinion polls ahead of Sunday's vote?" And then, in "Russia has run rings round the west", TGA got serious:
"Vladimir Putin's Russia, you see, is not a democracy. It pretends to be. It calls itself a sovereign democracy. But the difference between a democracy and a sovereign democracy is like that between a jacket and a straitjacket. A liberal candidate for the presidency, Mikhail Kasyanov, has been disqualified from standing on what was almost certainly a fraudulent charge of technical irregularity. Dissenters such as the former world chess champion Garry Kasparov are roughed up and locked up. Most important media are directly or indirectly controlled by the Kremlin. Independent journalists go in fear of their lives."
Yes, of course, Russia matters and it matters who runs Russia, but Hillary Clinton was on the money with "whatever". Today's elections are a farce that will rubber stamp Putin's rule. The winning candidate (Dmitry Medvedev) is just a cutout. Whatever. Meanwhile, Siberian Light is keeping up with the show.
