His contemporary Hugo Chavez in Venezuela has been doing the authoritarian-political prisoner thing for more than a decade, but Vladimir Putin is not too far behind.  With any luck, these fellows could emulate the successful grip on power of Zimbabwe’s Robert Mugabe, who has been on for some 22 years.  Today Garry Kasparov has a column in the Wall Street Journal taking a look at the past nine years of Putinist Russia, focusing both on the important examples of the Sochi elections and the second trial of Mikhail Khodorkovsky as signs that true reform and progress has not yet arrived to Russia.  Many people who take the time to read blogs on Russia are tired of Kasparov’s sometimes predicatable criticism … however I think this one is well argued.

Mr. Nemtsov did appear on the ballot, a rare feat for an opposition candidate in Russia. But this was no demonstration of Mr. Medvedev’s “liberalization.” The Kremlin left nothing to chance. Early voting (which involves ballots being cast before Election Day and held in a “secure” location) is typically exercised by just a handful of voters in Russia. But in Sochi, more than 25% of the ballots cast for mayor were early votes — roughly 100 times higher than in previous Russian elections. More than 90% of these votes went to Mr. Pakhomov. He won the race with 77% of the vote. There were other irregularities. At one polling station the number of ballots tallied was 250 higher than the total number of ballots distributed.