The Elections. They Bite

Where do I begin?

With a soundcheck on the Bolotnaya square or with the military trucks on the Pushkin square?


Pushkin square, March 4, 2012

We seem to have found an explanation to Putin's surprisingly nervous voting. Members of a Ukranian band Femen (not unlike our Pussy Riot) came to his polling station and bared their breasts to him. As always, the topless girls wrote important stuff on their chests. This time it was: “I steal for Putin”.



The Chechen President Ramzan Kadyrov was more lucky (or, perhaps, less lucky, depending on how you look at it). He was greeted not with naked breasts, but with songs and dances.




Anyhow, the situation on the polling stations in Chechnya is rather relaxed.



The attendance has already exceeded 30% of the population – a new state record for 3 p.m. Hurry, hurry, vote and run. To vote again.

Looks more like a scene from The Walking Dead series.





Sasha Dobryanskaya, an observer from the infamous station N 2888:

Strogino works as a voting factory. They have just brought a new batch of voters. The interval between bus arrivals has stabilized to a bus every 30-40 minutes.

Maria Sandomirskaya, observer:

A sensation at polling station N 169: no ballots have been stamped by the polling station commission. The absentee certificates have also not been bound. All absentee certificated have to be bound and numbered, from the first sheet to the last. To everyone in Hamovniki: please check this.

Ekaterina Svarovskaya, observer:

An elderly couple approached the box; the woman crossed herself and put the ballot in.

Meanwhile, the Patriarch was not so nervous:



Elena Racheva, reporter at Openspace.ru and observer:

According to the Internet, the head of the Ramenki municipal council attacked the Novaya Gazeta journalist Diana Hachatryan. The head of the council told her “Let's go out, shall we”, tried to take away her video camera, and retreated when he was recognized, Diana says.

“At least he didn't bite her, else she too would become a municipal council head”, the observers commented.


Natalia Kondarova, observer, station N 177, Frunzenskaya naberezhnaya, 30:

Something incredible is going on here. There is a line on the street, about 100 meters long. Everybody in that line is registered in this district, but nobody is included in the voting list. There is not enough room in the record book to write everyone down, and there are not enough ballots either. What fun!
And later: The onslaught keeps on. Apparently, there is a military base in the neighborhood, which has not been included in the lists, and the military are now coming to the station.

Next: We are keeping an eye on station N 2888 and are waiting for news from the pro-Kremlin evening parties around Moscow.