Mark Galeotti

But even so, the gap between the real results and the announced results determines how legitimate they seem.

Mark Galeotti is a Russia expert and honorary professor at University College London.

He says there's speculation President Putin will announce a mass mobilization of civilians into the army soon after voting's done.

I do wonder if the fact that we have parliamentary elections coming up, whether that's kind of his excuse for not making any kind of tough decisions right now.

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