Sky News reports:
Analysis: This isn't a real election - but watch out for possible 'protest' against Putin
Russia's elections are not "normal" and are a "stage-managed operation" to give the appearance of a fully functioning democracy.
Now nobody is claiming that Russian elections are the 'gold standard' in electoral choice but then again neither are many other places, for example:
- Ukraine has had no elections since the proxy war started
- the UK's PM Andy Burnham was not elected and the UK is a two-party state
- the USA is a two-party state and no-one else can get a look in
- France has been trying to ban 'right-wing' opposition from Le Pen for years
- Germany has been trying to ban 'right-wing' opposition from the AfD for years
Which is why all this yapping about Russians being denied electoral choices is really rather lame reporting.
It's not normal to have an unelected Prime Minister, its not normal for elections to be, in reality, limited to two parties, it's not normal to suspend elections, it's not normal to ban opposition parties and it's not normal to retrospectively ban donations to parties that threaten the status quo (i.e. Reform in the UK).
But maybe this is the new normal and everyone else is simply falling in line with 'authoritarian' regimes such as Russia and China when it comes to elections.