More than half (56 percent) of Russian citizens hope that the next president of Russia will put a stop to the war in Chechnya. That is the finding of a poll conducted by the Russian Public Opinion Center among 1,600 respondents in mid- January, Interfax reported on 29 January.
According to a report circulating in Washington, published this week
by Johnson's Russia List, the real December surprise was the size andscope
of vote fraud. This, suggests the reported comparison between theofficial
vote tallies and the actual ones, was big enough to switch about 20%
of the votes cast in the proportional race. The claim is that this
cut the Communist Party's total from 33% to 24%; raised Yedintsvo from14%
(actual) to 23% (official); and dropped Otechestvo from 21% to 12%.
The charge is also that fraud enabled the Soyuz Pravikh Sil (Union of
Right Forces) to beat the 5% threshold for seating in the Duma,
and give it 9% instead of 3.4%, while decimating Yabloko's support
from 12% to just 6%. Vladimir Zhirinovsky's party also benefitted by
the same means, jumping from under 5% to 6%.
The claim is substantiated by no evidence. But it offers a picture of
the Russian electorate's preferences that was reported by opinion
pollsters and regional observers a month before the election. Since
there is plenty of evidence of ballot-box stuffing and othertally-rigging
in many regions, the suspicion is reinforced that on December 19 the
Kremlin and its regional allies were able to pull off a nationwideswitcheroo.
The methods are well-known from the last Duma election in 1995.
Source: email digest.