http://www.nytimes.com/2016/09/21/opinion/behind-mr-putins-easy-victory.html 2016-09-21 03:17:08 Behind Mr. Putin’s Easy Victory Russia appears to have returned full circle to a pseudo-parliament whose only function is to give a semblance of legitimacy to an authoritarian ruler. === In What gives is the sorry degree to which Mr. Putin and his Kremlin cronies have consolidated full control over Russian politics. Twenty-five years after the collapse of the Soviet Union, Russia appears to have returned full circle to a pseudo-parliament whose only function is to give a semblance of legitimacy to an authoritarian ruler. The post-Soviet Russian Constitution already granted more powers to the president and cabinet than to the legislature, but at least the Duma was a platform for the opposition to question and criticize Kremlin policies. Now even this function is effectively gone. It’s true that after almost 17 years in power as president or prime minister, Mr. Putin enjoys an astounding approval rating hovering around 80 percent — founded in part on his demagogic claims to be standing up to a United States that he accuses of engineering all Russia’s woes and thus restoring Russia’s imperial greatness. Yet the larger truth is that Mr. Putin’s political opponents have been systematically imprisoned, driven into exile, harassed, intimidated and sometimes — as in the case of the opposition leader A scant two weeks before the vote, Russia’s leading independent polling organization, If there was a way the voters expressed discontent, it was by not voting. The 47.8 percent turnout was a record low for post-Soviet Russia, far below the 60 percent in 2011, and it was especially low in major urban areas. In Moscow, less than 30 percent of eligible voters cast ballots, compared with more than 50 percent in 2011. Mr. Putin is free to run for yet another six-year term as president in 2018 should he choose to. Until then, his grip on power seems secure. All the parliamentary election really showed was that those Russians who had once tried to shape a real democracy had been crushed or swept aside, or had given up for now.