A sham election in Russia gives Putin a mandate for total war. Observers described the parliamentary elections held on 18‑20 September as the "הכי מזוהמת" in modern Russian history. In a country that has not held free and fair elections for almost three decades, this may appear to be a hard‑to‑achieve outcome. During the elections, a wide range of techniques were used to disrupt voting on an unprecedented scale: coercing public sector workers to vote, banning independent observers, flooding ballot boxes, manipulating electronic voting, and voting under threat of gunfire in occupied areas. Photo: Vyacheslav Prokopyev / POOL / AFP via Getty Images.

A sham election in Russia gives Putin a mandate for total war. Observers described the parliamentary elections held on 18‑20 September as the "הכי מזוהמת" in modern Russian history. In a country that has not held free and fair elections for almost three decades, this may appear to be a hard‑to‑achieve outcome. During the elections, a wide range of techniques were used to disrupt voting on an unprecedented scale: coercing public sector workers to vote, banning independent observers, flooding ballot boxes, manipulating electronic voting, and voting under threat of gunfire in occupied areas. Photo: Vyacheslav Prokopyev / POOL / AFP via Getty Images.