The Media Mirror: what's in today's Russian newspapers?

Russia's recent parliamentary election continues to dominate the front pages of a number of Russian papers. Also making headlines is the failure of the talks on Kosovo and the perception by Ukrainian children of their country and government.

IZVESTIA daily published the results of its own internet poll on the meaning of the Duma election: 39 per cent responded that the people voted for stability in their own lives, 22 per cent of the country voted for Putin as its national leader, 21 per cent agree that Western liberalism proved inconsistent, 19 per cent- that it was a rehearsal for the presidential election.
 
The same paper has an article on the criticism of the election by some foreign observers. Many things plainly don’t look like what they are.  For instance, an opposition group supplied foreign observers with a video of a woman pushing a whole pack of ballots one after another into a ballot box. It was all over the internet and television. In fact, the woman turned out to be a member of a local electoral commission.  The voting papers had come from a portable ballot box for disabled people to cast their votes.
 
A NEZAVISIMAYA GAZETA editorial says Vladimir Putin suggested changing Russia’s electoral cycle so that the Duma and presidential elections would not follow each other so closely. That would mean extending the presidential term. The editorial says that would also put Vladimir Putin, if he runs in 2012, above party politics as a true national leader.
 
VREMYA NOVOSTEI writes the Kosovo Troika has raised its hands in surrender. All their efforts to find common ground between Kosovars and Serbs proved a total failure.
 
IZVESTIA also features another poll – among Ukrainian children. The task for 11 – 13 year-olds was to draw Ukrainian politics in colour and write captions to the pictures. It appears, says the paper, that Ukrainian schoolchildren know their way around such terms as “parliamentary coalition” and “the forming of a parliamentary majority”.  However they prefer fairy tale terminology to describe their country’s politics: “The President works hard for us all, like Snow White. All other politicians are Gnomes. Ukraine lacks Cinderellas most of all, those who clear away everyone’s mess for them, live in poverty and then get elected to the Rada and help poor people.”