TODAY: United candidate on course to win yesterday’s Sochi vote; dirty tricks rumors abound in election analysis; ‘fast start’ on US nuclear arms deal; military spy chief dismissed; Alexei Kudrin receives US court subpoena

The Washington Post reports that acting Mayor Anatoly Pakhomov has won the Sochi election with more than 76% of the vote.  The Moscow Times does not declare a winner, but looks at exit poll predictions of a United victory and examines turnout, saying attendance reached 39%.  ‘These aren’t real elections‘, Communist Party candidate Yuri Dzaganiya has told the Guardian.   ‘The secret services are completely involved in this election’, says Boris Nemstov, according to the BBC.  The Washington Post reports on a documentary denouncing Nemtsov broadcast in the run up to the election.  Kremlin critic Garry Kasparov was the last person Anatoly Pakhomov hoped to see at a ceremony to commemorate the Armenian genocide, says the New York Times.  In St Petersburg, a United Russia politician has renounced his own victory in a local election as a matter of vote rigging.