It’s shame that this wasn't used in production and then nefariously used against Putin.
Seriously?
-Status quo, old voting system. Corrupt process with vote results that remain in force. Nothing changes.
-Novel, manipulated system where the regime loses the vote. The vote gets overturned because it's illegitimate in the wrong way. Maybe embarrassing to the authorities?
...and it's house cleaning time, because the Enemy of the State(TM) was identified and it was caught red-handed stealing the national election! The dictator can name whoever he wants as the Enemy of the State(TM), sending a few choice persons to path of exile or worse, and the public will eat it up, because their country is under attack!
Just think about what 9/11 did to Bush's support rating.
Can you provide a source for that?
Sure.
Yeah there’s plenty to criticise but that fact alone will make him quite popular. He’s certainly authoritarian, I wouldn’t characterize him as a “ruthless dictator”
You mean except for the part where his opposition periodically gets assassinated?
A moth ago a scientific paper was published with a formally proven mathematical model which described the last year's election of a Primorskiy kray governor. Results of that vote were nullified in 2 weeks just to make a new temporary governor so he would win an opposing candidate in the next one by using an administrative resource.
If they could win easily, why would they falsify election results or ban opposition candidates? They don't want to play fair.
This is actually a problem for Putin, that he has certain popularity and trust, but it isn't transferred to people from his party, to governors etc.
/s
American provinciality is really bizarre and offputting.
Even if they were, how does one person's comment on HN apply to a couple hundred million people? It obviously doesn't. You're making a similar type of intellectual mistake as the parent (Russia bad; Americans bad).