I’m pleased with the election results. The key region is, of course, Sverdlovsk Region. Voilà: In Sverdlovsk Region, United Russia is getting 39.79%. So even despite the full-blown machine of falsification and the exclusion of “non-systemic” candidates from the elections, the result is pretty underwhelming. United Russia could probably have gotten around 30% even without administrative pressure and all the surrounding circus. So the question is: is it really worth keeping crook-governors in place and committing serious criminal offenses at every polling station if the same result can be achieved just by putting Vladimir Putin’s face on a poster? And the real winners and heroes, of course, are the people of Irkutsk. They thoroughly crushed the candidate put forward by one of Russia’s most “Effective Managers,” Oleg Deripaska. Yes, that very same one who won’t give his mother-in-law money for a vacation in Turkey. Locals, correct me if I’m wrong, but as I understand it, Deripaska, by slipping over a bag of money, even got the United Russia favorite removed from the race and tried to push through his own man—the former mayor of Bratsk. And he got it right where it hurts... The winner was the opposition candidate Kondrashov, with Communist backing. Sending rays of support to Irkutsk. Though for the full picture, they really ought to have burned down the administration building too.