March 14th

March 14 did not bring loud surprises, although various kinds of voting took place throughout the country.

Legislative assemblies were elected in eight regions, including Altai, the Sverdlovsk Region and the Yamal-Nenets Autonomous District, and mayoral elections were held in such large cities as Omsk, Krasnodar, Rostov-on-Don, and Irkutsk. City Dumas were elected by Smolensk, Novosibirsk and Astrakhan residents. Local officials predictably ensured the victory of United Russia. However, the distinguishing feature of the campaigns was a split within the ruling party. Which, in fact, is inevitable: when the political space is monopolized by one mega-party, then quasi-alternatives begin to form within it, expressing the interests of various bureaucratic clans and business groups affiliated with them. In Omsk, one of the last million-plus cities where mayors are still elected by direct vote, the conflict was still relatively mild . A similar split that occurred last spring in Smolensk ended a year later with the arrest of a schismatic mayor. In Nizhny Novgorod, the governor went into direct conflict with the ruling party and may lose his seat in August for this. Well, the powerful puppeteers, meanwhile, come up with new electoral technologies: the will of dead souls and phantom citizens. How it's done - read the material "Miracles in a Sieve"