I think this vid is pretty succinct, how'dya think? Well, the exit polls are unambiguous. There'll be no 2nd round,
Putin wins the presidential election in Russia. 58-60% roughly. And no surprise there.
The result was anticipated, and is hardly a shock for anybody. More important is what the opposition's reaction would be and what are Putin's next
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The strong spot of his opponents is not the elections, it's elsewhere, on the street. The protest movement is spreading. And he's not used to seeing that. It caught him completely by surprise. Let's not be fooled by the staged praise by the jubilant crowds at Luzhniki where thousands of paid clappers chanted his name in a semi-trance against 15 euros. The truth is very different and more painful for Dear Leader. His saintly aura is gone. He's in for a bumpy ride from now on. And in Russia, when the sharks sniff blood, they're sure to start circling around their prey. It's a principle as sure as nightfall.
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He has always managed to adjust to the changing realities, posing as a firm and powerful leader who knows what he's doing. In the beginning he even ventured with some economic liberalisation, something that looked like real reforms. He was flirting with the West. He closed the Russian military bases in Cuba and Vietnam. But then he suddenly decided that it's worth trying to strengthen the state, he arrested Khodorkovsky and he started a series of authoritarian actions that eventually shaped his regime as a repressive machine rather than a reformed modern state. And he said byebye to all attempts for rapprochement with the West. The Re-start episode with Hillary was a nice breath of fresh air but that was all, it stopped right there.
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