Tethers and Their Ends

From The Independent:

“For eight years we had Putin, then we had Medvedev, and now Putin again. Who after that: Medvedev?” asks Alexander Yurov in a third-class car where barracks-like bunks crowd both sides of a narrow walkway. “Well, this is what they’re getting from me,” he says, holding up his middle finger.

and The Moscow Times:

The promise of Putin’s ongoing presence at the helm of the Kremlin will cause irritation, says one analyst – ‘it’s the person that is the irritant’.  But quite apart from that, the high win margin he is claiming alone – of 61% – ‘will raise the specter of major fraud’, says Anatoly Medetsky.