This weekend offered a rogues’ gallery of phoney democracy in action. In Russia it was announced that Vladimir Putin had been swept back to the Kremlin, after a suspiciously smashing first-round victory in the presidential election. Iran staged its first parliamentary elections since the rigged presidential poll of 2009 and the violent suppression of the Green movement. And in China, the National People’s Congress – the country’s rubber-stamp parliament – assembled for its annual meeting. It is a coincidence – but perhaps no accident – that these are the three nations that have emerged as the closest protectors of Syria’s murderous one-party state.
上周末，各色虚假的民主活动粉墨登场。在俄罗斯总统大选首轮选举中蹊跷地以绝对优势获胜之后，弗拉基米尔•普京(Vladimir Putin)将重返克里姆林宫。伊朗举行了议会选举，这是自2009年那场有舞弊嫌疑的总统大选和暴力镇压“绿色运动”(Green movement)以来的首次。manbetx3.0 则召开了一年一度的全国人大——manbetx3.0 的“橡皮图章”议会——会议。巧合的是（但或许并非偶然），这三个国家都是残暴的叙利亚一党专政政府最密切的保护者。