Activists decry Russia's latest case of 'managed democracy'
(Read article summary)Opposition candidates are crying foul at official results from Sunday's controversial mayoral elections in Sochi, Russia, the venue of the 2014 Winter Olympics.
Opposition candidates are crying foul at official results from Sunday's controversial mayoral elections in Sochi, Russia, the venue of the 2014 Winter Olympics. Tallies show the Kremlin's choice, Anatoly Pakhomov, bulldozing aside a field of six contenders with a Sovietesque 77 percent victory.
Pro-democracy activists, backed by some experts, insist the outcome is a classic case of former President Vladimir Putin's "managed democracy," in which a facade of multi-candidate elections veils a process of official coercion, manipulation, and outright persecution that ensures that no genuine oppositionist will ever win.
Some experts had hoped the system, which seemed to reach its peak with the almost uncontested election of Mr. Putin's successor Dmitri Medvedev last year, might be on the wane. The pro-Kremlin United Russia Party has lost recent municipal contests in Murmansk and Smolensk, and one triumphant United Russia candidate, Anton Chumachenko, last week resigned his seat on St. Petersburg's city council to protest the "cynical mockery" of democracy that produced his victory.
