QUESTION: - Were today's election results in Russia "safe"

After his success in the Lord of the Rings - President (Golum) Putin's United Russia party won over 70 per cent of the seats in the State Duma. However, observers said the election was characterised by intimidation and numerous violations and the West united to condemn the conduct of the poll.

The Foreign Office called on the Kremlin to investigate electoral regularities while the German government took the unprecedented step of declaring that Russia was "not a democracy".

"These were not free and fair elections, they were not democratic elections," government spokesman Thomas Steg told reporters.

"Russia was no democracy and is no democracy."

Despite the international storm that it is likely to cause, analysts say that there are growing signs Mr Putin could defy the West - who he recently told to keep "its snotty noses" out of Russian affairs - by running for a third term.

However, I believe that the electoral inadequacies of which the West have complained have - as is often the case - an innocent explanation.

The rules within the Russian "polling" stations are somewhat different to in the west.

Rather than completing a ballot form by placing a "X" against their candidate of choice, voters are simply required to place their ballot form in a ballot box of which there is one for each candidate.

As voters enter the polling station, government officials advise them to go into a private room, and to follow the instructions on the first ballot box that they come to.

History dictates that the positioning of the boxes must follow a set convention, with the presiding President's box being the first in line.

With ballot papers in hand, the Russian voters proceed into the room and come to the first box, and follow the instructions on the first box - "Put in".

The rest as they say is history!!