SINCE Russia’s last parliamentary election in 2011, when widespread fraud triggered mass protests, millions of Russians have fallen into penury. Wages have plunged, and labor protests are on the rise. Vladimir Putin’s forces are fighting openly in Syria and secretly in Ukraine. Polls show that 33% of Russians believe the country is heading in the wrong direction, though 82% approve of Mr Putin. With so much at stake, why are so many ignoring the parliamentary election due on September 18th? Golos, an election monitoring group, calls the campaign the “most sluggish and inactive” of the past decade.
This sterility is the Kremlin’s strategy. The election will be seen as a success if it is uneventful. The vote was moved forward from December to September, a move that critics contend was designed to keep turnout low, as summer holidays and the new school year keep people preoccupied. While some dissidents have been allowed to run, the strongest opposition leader, Alexei Navalny, has been convicted on trumped-up charges to keep him out of the race. As Mr Navalny points out, many of those running have been around since 1993. Russian…
