BBC Stalks ‘Carousel’ Bus

A great bit of investigative journalism from Newsnight’s Tim Whewell today, who reported for the BBC on various hidden aspects of the voting process: Tim and his crew followed an alleged ‘carousel’ bus of health-worker voters and confronted their driver – you can view the footage here.  Regional voters often have little choice about how to vote, says the report, offering the Krasnodar region as an example, where most of the jobs are connected to land owned by the local (United Russia) governor, Alexander Tkachov.  He is interviewed in the report; Whewell also speaks to a Pravda newspaper distributor, who alleges that many citizens are just too intimidated to vote against Vladimir Putin. ‘Political and economic power here are entwined under capitalism just as they were under communism.  People fear they could lose their livelihoods if they vote the wrong way.’