Russian Parliamentary Election Results: And now for the second phase...

The results of the December 2 election have largely been a foregone conclusion since Putin decided to head up the United Russia party list. The only questions that really hold any interest are the voter turnout (estimated to be 52% - 4 percentage points higher than 4 years ago) and the share of the Duma that United Russia has (what looks to be around 60% - somewhat lower than many expected). Also, of interest is that four parties appear to have made it into the Duma, which is a surprise for some experts who were predicting only the Communists and UNited Russia would make it in considering the new requirement of needing 7% of the overall vote to make it into the Duma (this threshold was successful in eliminating the liberal, pro-market parties like Yabloko and SPS). The other two parties that made it into the Duma were the two pro-Kremlin parties, which each barely beat the 7% barrier with 8% of the vote:
1. The Liberal Democratic Party, like the Holy Roman Empire (which was neither holy nor Roman), is neither liberal or democratic. Instead, it generally sells its votes to United Russia and is managed by the colorful Vladimir Zhirinovsky, who pontificates and makes alot of noise, ultimately signifying nothing.
2. A Just Russia, a party rumored to have been started by the Kremlin, that is headed by the sycophant Sergei Mironov, who like the Roman senate in the first century BC calling for Caesar to become dictator, is continually calling for Putin to set himself up for a third term...

Thus, in effect united Russia will control almost 80% of the Duma - enough to make any constitutional changes if they so desire.

We now turn our attention to two things:

1. According to a mass produced poster that was already being printed a couple of days ago (see insert upper left) to be handed out December 3 (proclaiming the victory of Putin and UNited Russia - again reflecting the certainty of United Russia's victory in this election), there will now be mass stagings of support for Putin in the squares of Russia in order to forestall (a highly unlikely) attempt to annul the election results (a la the Orange Revolution in Kiev in 2003).

On the back of this poster (described in an article more fully on Gazeta,ru , it describes how America (described as Russia's enemy) is planning to stage an orange revolution in Russia from the 3 Dec - 6 Dec.
"America has a different plan for Russia. American wants those traitors and wolves to win: the American citizen Kasparov, the fascist Limonov, and Nemtsov, who will sell the country down the river. They do not agree with the victory of our President. These traitors want power in order to again allow the bandits and criminals to rape our country, to sell our oil and gas for nothing. From the 3rd to 6th of December before the official announcement of the results of the vote, they will try to seize the squares and buildings in order to deny our victory."

In order to stop that, the reader is exhorted to join the "President's team" in defense of the "independence of Russia."

2. The more interesting presidential race will now begin to heat up. The certainty of the Duma race is matched by the uncertainty of this race - who will run for UNited Russia? Will Putin really step down? What will the effect of United Russia's victory be? These questions will all be answered by March of next year. Stay tuned.