You left out anarcho-syndicalist collective!
Well, given their wars with Germany, Afghanistan and military involvement in Spain, I think Russia has played an instrumental role in wrecking any political system ever attempted.
Possible exception direct democracy, though that may be indistinguishable from anarchosyndicalism.
Putin is a vile, repulsive, evil man. That said, almost everyone believes he was already, de facto, the tsar of Russia all along. His official return to de jure control of Russia changes nothing, really.
At least now, our diplomats can deal directly with the crook in charge instead of maintaining the polite fiction that someone else was really in charge.
He’s bad. But I’ll agree he’s a lot better than some of our nations other associates. Even with vote fraud, the issue isn’t that he wouldn’t have won the election free and fair. Most indications are he would, it’s just he didn’t do it legitimately. There’s definitely been issues with other elections in Russia, but a wider percentage of Russians want Putin than Americans wanted Bush in 2000. Then you have to look at some of his competitors, one of which wants to retake Ukraine AND Alaska, then use Alaska as a convenient place to throw all the Ukrainians. Then the US won’t work with Russia over missile defense (hey, chill out, this is totally aimed at Iran and not you), and we can barely make our congress keep up with our treaty obligations (START and others). Like I have said, he is bad: war(s) of aggression (as if that’s exclusive to him or Russia), questionable associates, rigging past elections far less clear than this one was, press issues, and handing out a bit too much free polonium. But we can, should, and by all indications will work with him. Maybe he’s a dictator, but he’s no Supreme/Dear Leader.
Elections don’t just refer to the day that voting happens though. The Putin administration has taken a lot o steps to ensure that only select candidates of token oppositional theatre are allowed to hold seats in the Duma and run for president. Not to mention the explicit control over the television media and political groups designed to fabricate vocal support for Putin. So while he may have won with or without ballot stuffing, the election process itself is a farce.