Russia is voting today and the only question is what percent of the vote Putin will get.
The thing that bugs me is how the Western media plays into the idea that these are free and fair elections.
1) The government essentially controls who can run against Putin by various means.
Strong opposition candidates are arrested on flimsy charges etc.
2) The government controls the media and what is said about Putin and the other candidates.
3) The ballot boxes likely are compromised as well.
Even without #3 that's not a fair election, but the media buys into it all the time. If I pick the candidates I run against and get 80% of the vote, who cares? Now Putin may very well win a fair election in Russia but that's not what they going on there.
Venezuela was even a worse example. I remember laughing when the Carter center said, "As a matter of fact, of the 92 elections that we've monitored, I would say that the election process in Venezuela is the best in the world Check out this article." Much of the same stuff was going on there.
https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2012/oct/03/why-us-dcemonises-venezuelas-democracy
