A Russian exercise in re-selection

Why cover the Russian exercise as an election?

On Sunday, September 19, two days after Russians started to cast something that was called a vote, exit polls were clear: President Vladimir Putin’s United Russia party was expected to maintain its grip over the State Duma, or lower house.

The whole thing was confirmed the next day.

Much of the world’s media reported the developments as even-handedly as possible. The regime’s assertions were carried first; then came the opposition lament and the crisp claims by independent observers that the three-day parliamentary elections were neither free nor fair.

It felt a bit of a cop-out, somewhat like Apple and Google’s craven response to the Russian government’s reported threat to arrest their employees in the country if they didn’t shut down a voting app meant to help opposition parties organize against the Kremlin in the so-called election. Apple and Google did. And promptly.

But then Apple and Google are businesses. Their purpose is basically to s…