Masha Lipman on the New Balance of Power

Masha Lipman of the Carnegie Center has spoken to the Washington Post about Sunday’s election results, saying that they herald ‘a shift in the Russian political environment.’  The results, which see United Russia lose its constitutional majority, are a mirror, she says, for ‘lawlessness, corruption, abuse of authority by the police and by the government’, and suggested that Putin’s decision to run for a third Presidential term and Medvedev’s‘abdicat[ion]’ from his role was certainly a catalyst for the unprecedented amount of visible discontent and dissatisfaction.  ‘People really felt that they were held in contempt by the government by this trading-places operation.’