The Russian presidential election on March 2nd was never going to be a thriller. Its outcome was clear from the moment Vladimir Putin announced his chosen successor: Dmitry Medvedev. Perhaps decorum might still have been observed by letting one opposition candidate stand. But the Kremlin has no time for niceties; it has refused to register Mikhail Kasyanov, once Mr Putin's prime minister, and has also kept out most foreign election observers. The only two serious candidates besides Mr Medvedev will now be an extreme nationalist, Vladimir Zhirinovsky, and Gennady Zyuganov, perennial leader of the Communist Party-plus a man nobody has even heard of.
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