Russian Elections

One of my new favourite websites is the always magnificent English Russia. The motto of the good people behind the website is "just because something cool happens daily on one sixth of the Earth surface".

The other day, no doubt inspired by election fever in Russia, they posted some posters from Russian elections held in the 1990s, but mainly from Presidential Elections. One picture appealed to me in particular:

I am told that the banner reads:

Youth choose Zyuganov

Now, for those of you wondering, the honey in the poster is Gennady Zyuganov, who has occupied the somewhat incongruous position as leader of the new Communist Party of the Russian Federation in post-communist Russia. You can see why the kids would all be rushing out to support Zyuganov; because he really is one cool looking cat!

FYI, in the first round of the 1996 Presidential election –an election that I best associate with 'Mad Vlad' Zhirinovsky – Zyuganov finished second with 32%, trailing only Yeltsin, with 35%. The runoff election two months later saw Yeltsin beat Zyuganov 54% to 40%, a far more interesting contest than last week.