Want to know why Russia and the West is at odds? The West is pretty damn insulting towards Russia right now and it is OUR actions which are causing the rifts. Vladimir Putin’s party just won 70% of Parliament. This is not even close and an outcome like this cannot be rigged unless you have armed guards threatening voters at the booths (e.g.,Saddam Hussein’s rigged elections). Putins foes have chased the electorate into Putin’s open arms due to their wild and unsubstantiated accusations, then they claim foul as if they cannot face up to their own mistakes. Check out this bit of idiocy from CNN/Europe:

But international electoral monitors and foreign governments have questioned the fairness of the vote, which will let him wield power beyond the end of his presidential term.

Putin’s United Russia Party had 63.2 percent of the vote from 92 percent of precincts reporting, according to the Central Election Commission — enough to form a majority in the Duma, Russia’s lower house of parliament, party leader Boris Gryzlov said.

But the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) questioned the fairness of the polls.

“We can not say there were fair elections,” said Luc van den Brande, head of the OSCE delegation, Monday.

That is a Clintonesque way of saying these anti-Putin elements in the EU cannot say the elections wee unfair or unrepresentative either. So what if Putin is now a Member of Parliament? That is a legal change in government jobs. Why is a first lady of one of our Presidents now running for President? We have had two father-son pairs of Presidents. To the conspiracy minded these could look like attempts to hold onto power! Geez, get over the Cold War folks and join the 21st century. You want to influence Russia try PARTNERING with it instead of badgering it all the time. R-E-S-P-E-C-T goes a long way in influencing people.