There is a lot of speculation around the world not as to who will win the Russian Presidential election but as to the amount of electoral fraud or civil repression that will be evident during the polling period. I am writing in the UK where our own head of state traces a hereditary ”legitimacy” based on a dynasty founded by an illegitimate pretender from a thousand years ago. Never mind twelve years, in the UK we’ve had the same head of state for sixty years! Therefore, apparently unlike many of my compatriots, I do feel not qualified to smugly criticise the process of selection in any other countries where the head of state is actually elected, however flawed the process. I feel this is counter-productive and verging on cultural colonialism. [Read more]