Well the Republicans want to remain rulers for life, so we have push polling, bomb scares, takeover of the media, stacking the Justice Department and the Supreme Court, microspying, unjustified surveillance, stovepiping, signing statements and a host of other violations. In short, the Bush team has sent Putin the high sign.
SM: while I think there are important qualitative differences between what United Russia and the Republican party are up to, your point about moral authority is important. It wasn't long ago that Musharraf's legal adviser justified Pakistani policies with direct reference to the Bush administration's war-on-terror policies.
I always find the debate of excuses very irritating and poor. The excuse that the US may have irregularities during elections (currently at the hands of what has become the abject -once grandiose- Republican party) is meaningless when making a value judgment of what is happening in Russia. If you want to assign causality, Simple Mind, go right ahead. Good luck proving it. In my opinion you won't get past conjectures (irregularities in the US electoral process used as an excuse doesn't count).
On another note. As has been commented before, I don't understand why Putin is doing this. I don't think he is stupid enough to think the world or the Russians will believe the election was squeaky clean and opposition parties really should have no representation. It is as if he is trying really hard to show the world he is a 3rd world dictator. We believe you Vladimir! But what are the effects of that? How will confronting geopolitical adversaries on two fronts help Russia? I don't think it will. I'm aware of Russian paranoia, but the time is coming (when China decides it wants to eat parts of the Russian far east) when they will wish they had chilled relations with Europe. Western Europe doesn't pose any threats to Russia if the same holds in the opposite direction. The potential benefits from collaboration are great and a few years back this seemed evident to all parts involved. What happened since Russia and Germany were chums and Putin said once he wished, one day, Russia would join the EU? American foreign policy. Purposely or not, US Foreign Policy has caused Russia to become paranoid about the Western world and now we are seeing the results of this paranoia having very detrimental effects on US foreign policy objectives (Iran, China, arms control in Europe, nuclear arms control). There are potential explanations, I believe, for why the US would want a Russia that is confronted, rather than friendly, with Western Europe, but, also my opinion, the perceived view that Russia must be confronted is anachronistic specifically because of Russia's demographic reality. Russia, however, had no need to fall for the US' provocations (voluntary or not) and could have worried on selling gas and using this to improve the natural resources bonanza to improve its society so that maybe their numbers will stop dwindling and there'd be something other than nuclear warheads between China and the Soviet Far East. Did I just rant? I think so.
An election without some scandal is not a proper election these days.
At least it seems this way.
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