Five more years! (Thanks Chalmers)

Here's to 5 more years.

After winning a unanimous vote by the State Assembly of Bashkiria, President Murtaza Rakhimov extended his current 16-year electoral winning streak for another 5-year term.

What does one do after such a resounding victory for democracy? Well, you take Vladimir Putin down to the local brewery and buy him a beer. (I can't believe this isn't satire.)

As we all know, the Bashkirs are a cause near and dear to JCE's heart. Always a bridesmaid, never a bride, in the mad scramble to sovereignty following the end of the Soviet Union, Bashkortostan remained the Land That Time Forgot. This psudo-state exists as a living museaum to the Soviet Union.

Elections in Bashkortostan were little changed from the good ol' days of the USSR. In fact, the OSCE was almost at a loss for words when describing Rakhimov's last election, saying only that it had all "the elements of basic fraud."

Cheers Comrade Rakhimov!

PBD

Seriously, we're dealing with a region of fake-ass democracies, people. You see that don't you?

ERN