Study Finds Mass Rigging in Russian Vote

As many as one in three votes for Dmitry Medvedev in Russia's presidential election were fraudulent, according to a comprehensive study by a computer analyst. Not only was Medvedev's total inflated by about 7 points, but the turnout was also exaggerated, reports the Times of London. That means that only a third of Russia's 100 million voters actually backed Vladimir Putin's successor, according to the analysis.

Ballot returns reveal statistical abnormalities, such as an unusually common prevalence of round numbers in Medvedev's vote count. Those anomalies suggest local officials manipulated the results, perhaps in an attempt to impress their superiors. But the vote-rigging was largely unnecessary "because he would easily have won without it," the author of the study concedes. (More Dmitry Medvedev stories.)