Monday
It was unsurprising, to wake up to the news of a thumping election victory for Vladimir Putin, but there were people who did take the risk of voting the wrong way; some incredible footage showed one woman crawling like a marine into a polling booth, to avoid being identified. The independent newspaper Novaya Gazeta also alleges widespread vote falsification in Putin’s favour. Why would a citizen take a risk like that, to vote for someone who doesn’t have a hope? Why would the world’s richest kleptocrat rig a vote he’s going to win anyway? There’s something in the futility of both acts that makes a post-Putin future seem, at the very least, thinkable.
