The Sun Will Come Up
The BBC announces the obvious:
Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin says he has accepted a proposal to stand for president in March 2012.
Addressing the ruling United Russia party’s annual congress, Mr Putin and current President Dmitry Medvedev backed one another to switch roles.
The announcements end speculation over which man should run for the top job.
Everyone with two neurons to keep each other company, and is capable of locating Russia on a map knew that Putin was taking a break from the title of ‘President’ to show he wasn’t actually a dictator. Medvedev understands whose hand is on the detonator, so he pretended he was president for one term to satisfy the Russian constitution, which Putin allows to continue to exist for the look of it.
2 comments
Furthermore, the sun will come up in the east :).
The only real question is whether Putin will get 70% of the vote, or 80% of the vote. It all depends on how his people program the computers. Not that they really need to do so, my guess is Putin would have no problem getting 50%+1 votes in Russia right now in a free and fair election because the Russians seem to want to be ruled by a strongman, but Putin’s people will rig the election anyhow just on general principle.
– Badtux the Non-Russian Penguin
(who, however, knows a few Russians).
To prove that he’s not a dictator, Putin never allows the vote totals to be published until after the election takes place. Reporting the totals before the election, as has happened in a few places, makes the election monitors suspicious. 😉
The cult of Putin is alive and well in Russia.