[lotusmars]

All people allowed to take part in elections are sanctioned by Kremlin.

Try to sign up as a candidate and best case you'll get rejected, worst case beaten, bullied, jailed or murdered.

[jhgb]

I have no doubt that what you're saying is true. Still, that doesn't make the difference between lack of choice and illusion of choice any bigger.

[lotusmars]

You can create a political party in US. In Russia even attempting it will get you jailed or murdered.

It's still weird how on the West it's customary to compare the uncomparable. In Chechnya (or Iran) all gay people are lynched without exception and women are treated as slaves. The West has its share of homophobia and misoginy but it's not even close, not by a thousand miles.

[jhgb]

You can create a political party in the US with exactly the same amount of effect on future politics that such an attempt would have in Russia. Compared to either of those, influencing the political scene by creating a new party is vastly easier in many other parts of the civilized world. For example, there are parties in my country's parliament that didn't even exist a decade ago. It would seem that the last time a non-Democrat, non-Republican party had a seat in US Congress was around 1950 or so - seventy years ago. That seems like quite the difference in political culture to me.