May I add yet another story to this thread?<p>I was a member of municipal polling board during last Putin&#x27;s election. Honestly I did my best to prevent fraud, and yet the voting protocol (a paper where all ballots are summed up, it goes to an higher-level board) was rewritten right under my nose (+25% to a leading candidate, guess which one), with police covering it up. I tried to warn a friendly member of higher-level board, just to learn that all independent members of the board were escorted out of building by our SWAT analogue.<p>Voting and vote counting were all recorded on much-hyped state-wise CCTV system, so I thought &quot;right, I&#x27;ll go to a public prosecutor, they will retrieve the record and the fraud would be obvious&quot;. Guess what — there were no interest at all, my complaint was routed into the same higher-level board.<p>It wasn&#x27;t an isolated event. In fact, the huge part of polling boards in Saint-Petersburg had their protocols rewritten. It was widely publicized in a local independent press, but all court cases were ultimately lost and no one were held accountable. Similar stories took place in other Russian cities.<p>This was a huge, centrally orchestrated fraud, with those in power getting away with it (as always). Voting is an institute of critical importance to any liberal democracy out there, and it is completely and systematically destroyed by Putin and his team. I can&#x27;t see how on Earth the country where it&#x27;s normal can be even compared to US; it&#x27;s like comparing North Korea and US with a straight face.<p>And yes, given that it&#x27;s HN, let me also mention that all cellular and Internet operators in Russia are legally and openly obliged to pay for wiretapping equipment and install it with no regulatory oversight on how it&#x27;s used. It&#x27;s so amusing when people somehow combine any degree of support for Snowden AND for Russian government.