Alexei Navalny, co-chair of the NAROD movement: There can be only one comment: once again we expected bloodshed, and once again we watched as the great and terrible Putin swallowed a tiny bird whole. Although all the political analysts were waiting with bated breath for something “sensational,” their expectations were in vain. The explanation is simple: there was really nothing to say. Out of sheer hopelessness, the mantra about the “terrible corrupt nineties” is being repeated yet again. There is no stronger ideological message. And it sounds more ridiculous every time when it comes from a man whose political father is the impeccably honest Pal Palych Borodin, and who himself, back in those very same nineties, was quietly peddling rare-earth metals on the side while working in the office of one of the most famous first-wave democrats, Sobchak. With a completely straight face and in a highly solemn tone, Putin suggested that the country vote for him, Luzhkov, Shaimiev, Ilyumzhinov, and Darkin if it wants to fight corruption. That is the substance of it. But the form seems even more interesting to me. The public and cynical trampling of election law, along with this spit in the face of the other participants in the campaign, shows us that the lack of words and arguments will be compensated for with swagger and zeal. There is just one important point, though: in this epic battle, V.V. Putin and his cronies look less and less like the Russian bogatyr (epic knight) he so clearly wants to resemble, and more and more like Idolishche Poganoye (a monstrous villain from Russian folklore). That is something worth thinking about. http://preemniki.ru/publications/88 publication number — a coincidence