Some people seem to be a bit excited by the mass protests going on in Russia right now after Putin's United Russia failed to gain 50% of the vote in the parliamentary elections despite massive fraud and bullying. I'm a bit skeptical, first because I don't think the protests will lead to anything and also because the alternatives are likely to be worse than Putin. The party that gained the second most votes in the election was the Communist Party with 19.2%. Yup, the party of Stalin that murdered millions of people through gunfire, beatings and starvation still is the second largest party. The 3rd largest party is "A Just Russia", with 14% of the vote, which considers itself to be the Socialist alternative to the Communist Party. I guess that means they give you a blindfold before they shoot you. Just kidding. They actually sound like a European style social democratic party, though in a place like Russia, I would never trust anyone who wants to increase government control. The only other party in the Duma is the Liberal Democratic Party of Vladimir Zhirinovsky, essentially a fascist party run by a crazy person. And that's it. The only free market, individual liberty oriented parties (Yabloko and Right Cause) garnered only 4% of the vote combined and received zero seats.
In other words, even if the protests actually lead to something, the result probably won't be any better, and could be even worse.
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