Western criticism of Russia’s presidential election is false-hearted at best. But coming from the United States with its recent history of election fiascos it is astounding. There are very good reasons why Russians would want Putin, even if they did have a ‘Western’ style electoral rodeo.

Americans are given the illusion of choice with a Pepsi-Cola/Coca-Cola two-party circus where the AIPAC financed politicians (The Grayzone here and Al Jazeera here) agree on everything except who should run the show in America’s imperial interests. What doesn’t change is the 1% in whose interests the 9% of the cream work.

It appears harder for a third-party candidate to get into a US presidential election debate than it does in Russia. Only Ross Perot in 1994 comes to mind. The Oligarchs and their scribes in the two major American parties get to pick and choose who gets into the televised debates.