The Chinese have not taken kindly to Washington’s call for a probe into alleged voting irregularities in the December 2 Russian parliamentary elections, which the Putin-led United Russia party won by a landslide. The Chinese press attributed United Russia’s victory to the potent combination of Putin’s effective leadership, popular support, and skillful campaign tactics. People’s Daily proclaimed that the win by United Russia is, in fact, the triumph of “Putinism.” The Russian president is portrayed not as a politician seeking to cling to power, but instead as a leader committed to rebuilding his country according to the “Putin Plan,” the full implementation of which is expected to take 15-20 years. The official Xinhua news agency ran on December 6 a commentary titled “Is democracy an ‘obedient child’?” The piece, published the same day in Shanghai’s Oriental Morning Post, asks rhetorically: