Putin's party wins Russian parliamentary elections

It makes your ears burn to hear the Kremlin talk of a triumph of democracy in connection with the elections, but there is an element of truth in it," Jan Rybář comments. "We should remember how the world feared the return of fanatic communists or nationalists until just a couple of years ago. A glance over the border to Belarus - a communist museum managed by an arrogant dictator - suffices. With a little bad luck things could have turned out the same in Russia. From a historical perspective Russia's development has been a triumph for democracy. The former communist empire is freer than one had dared to hope. Nonetheless, democracy is defined somewhat differently in the West. Russia has a long way to go before it conforms to that definition."

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