For all the quiet murmurings of disapproval in Europe following the interference and eventual undermining of the OSCE’s election monitoring mission, it looks like the Kremlin has yet again escaped from the scene of the crime, squeaky clean. The election, it seems, has absolutely nothing to do with the votes of citizens within Russia’s borders, but rather is taking place in foreign capitals as Putin campaigns for international legitimacy. This was made exceptionally clear to me during a speech I made this week at an alternative investment summit about Russia for a corporate audience in London. I am of course exceedingly grateful to the organizers for the invitation to speak, and I found many of the offerings to be quite brilliant and valuable. Despite this, there was also an unfortunately pervasive sense of reluctance among my new colleagues to speak in honest and straightforward terms about the Russian reality.