And I didn't even know Vladimir Putin was a Republican!
VELIKY NOVGOROD — In this historic city that was once the cradle of Russian democracy, an unprecedented new campaign kicked off over the weekend to install web cameras in every polling station around the country in an effort to prevent voting fraud.
The ambitious program — costing billions of rubles — was ordered by Prime Minister Vladimir Putin following the largest public protests in years in reaction to widespread allegations of ballot box-stuffing and other voting irregularities in December's State Duma elections.
Some experts say the move to live-stream activity around polling stations serves as a strong statement to bloggers and the Internet-savvy who played an important role in whipping up dissent after the disputed ballot preserved a narrow majority for Putin's United Russia in the Duma.
Yet skeptics say the camera initiative will fall far short as there are other ways to cheat. Still, officials say the effort will make a huge difference in promoting fair elections.
"It will have a certain psychological effect for people who come to the polling station. They will feel they are not being cheated," the city's Mayor Yury Bobryshev told The Moscow Times on Saturday.
Read more: http://www.themoscowtimes.com/news/article/election-webcam-installation-begins/451432.html#ixzz1kSFOeEsK
= new reply since forum marked as read