It doesn't matter who is casting the votes, said Josef Stalin, an undoubted expert--what matters is who's counting them.(The Week)(Putin stand for re-election)(Brief Article)

* It doesn't matter who is casting the votes, said Josef Stalin, an undoubted expert--what matters is who's counting them. Standing for re-election as president of Russia, Vladimir Putin has gone one better: It didn't matter who voted or who counted. In a style he can have learned only in good old KGB days, he took care that nobody of any standing ran against him, he closed down the independent media to ensure an almost total monopoly of debate and publicity, and he arrested or chased out of the country the millionaire oligarchs who alone ...