Commentaries, Analysis, And Editorials -- December 27, 2017



Masha Gessen, New Yorker: Alexey Navalny and the Empty Spectacle of the Russian Election

It’s hard to write about the Russian Presidential election, not because it is particularly difficult to understand but because the normal language of such things can’t describe it. There are candidates, but their names can appear on the ballot only if the Kremlin allows it. There is a campaign, but candidates are allowed to appear on television only if the Kremlin O.K.s it. There are, usually, debates, but Vladimir Putin, who has been in power in Russia for eighteen years and is running for another six-year term, doesn’t deign to take part in them. There are opinion polls, but their results are adjusted to fit the probable result of the vote. And then there is the vote, but its outcome is preordained. In other words, the event scheduled for March 18, 2018, is not an election, but it is called one.

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Commentaries, Analysis, And Editorials -- December 27, 2017

Israelis Don't Care How the UN Votes. Here's Why. -- Daniel Gordis, Bloomberg

Will North Korea Blow Up the Winter Olympics? -- Tom Z. Collina & Catherine Killough, Foreign Policy

Beijing complicates Washington’s Afghan strategy -- MK Bhadrakumar, Asia

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