Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin’s self-elevation prompted a bizarre, if historically familiar incident at the current congress of the ruling United Russia party. The delegates are supposed to be drafting a manifesto for December’s parliamentary elections but, Time reports:
….after Putin announced his wish to return to the presidency and delivered a speech full of extravagant promises — that he would boost wages by around 50%, defeat corruption, double the rates of road construction, home construction and total economic growth, and “completely” rearm the navy and the army in the next five years — a party functionary named Oleg Morozov jumped up from his seat in the front row and suggested that they skip the process of debating a party platform. Instead, Morozov suggested, the party should “formalize this speech as our party program.” The thousands of party members in attendance erupted in hoots and applause, the press section in laughter, and the proposal was passed in a unanimous vote. ….Only once was the subsequent streak of unanimous voting broken at the party congress. During the poll to choose its list of parliamentary candidates, 1 out of around 600 ballots was found to be in dissent. “Where is this one person,” Putin demanded from the podium. “Where is this dissident?” The delegates looked nervously around, but no one spoke. “Too bad,” Putin said. “He should have shown himself.”
