The OSCE has released its verdict on the election results: ‘clearly skewed in favour of one of the contestants‘, Vladimir Putin, who was given ‘a clear advantage over his competitors in terms of media presence‘.  Here’s the conclusion of the official statement, which does some serious pointing-out-of-the-obvious:

“There were serious problems from the very start of this election. The point of elections is that the outcome should be uncertain. This was not the case in Russia. There was no real competition and abuse of government resources ensured that the ultimate winner of the election was never in doubt,” said Tonino Picula, the Special Co-ordinator to lead the short-term OSCE observer mission and Head of the delegation of the OSCE Parliamentary Assembly.