Local elections embarrass the Kremlin
The ruling party loses half its Moscow city council seats
THE FIRST indication that things were not going to plan for Vladimir Putin came when the official exit polls for city-council elections in Moscow failed to materialise on schedule at 6pm on September 8th. By the early hours, the majority enjoyed by United Russia, the ruling party, had taken a huge dent, a sign of a growing mood of discontent in the capital.
This article appeared in the Europe section of the print edition under the headline “Moscow’s slap to Putin”
From the September 14th 2019 edition
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