DUD

Pro-Putin Rally Falls Flat

Attendance sparse, some forced to come.

Faced with allegations of voter fraud, Prime Minister Vladimir Putin’s United Russia Party held a rally in Moscow Monday. Unfortunately, what should have been a hit back at the successful anti-Kremlin protests over the weekend was actually a dud. The New York Times reports that attendance at the rally was “sparse” and not enough to fill the space reserved. Even worse, some of the “supporters” confessed to being forced to come to the rally to make Putin look better on television. The hits keep coming for Putin: first his party lost its majority in the elections, then anti-Kremlin protests over the weekend brought an estimated 40,000 to revolt, and this morning billionaire Mikhail Prokhorov announced he was running for president.