If there was indeed an overwhelming support for United Russia in the recent election results, then in some abstract sense one could say that the Russian people were getting the government they had voted for. But the evidence thus far shows much of the electorate staying home and the mood of the average voter beyond apathetic. Speaking today with my Russian colleague is a typical example of what one hears about voter turnout in Russia’s major cities. “There are around 300 flats my building, which you have to assume is at least two persons of voting age per flat on average–or at least 600 voters,” he told me. “Yet when I voted at 5 PM today only 30 of the people registered in this building–around 5 percent–had actually bothered to vote by this time. There was no line or last-minute, before dinner rush to vote. When I was at the polling station it was almost completely empty.”