Last Sunday, 26 April, the Sochi Mayoral election took place in the Southern Russian city of by the Black Sea, and the location of the Winter Olympics in 2014. Unsurprisingly, Anatoly Pakhomov, the candidate of Putin's United Russia party won the ballot with a handsome 77 per cent of the vote.

The original number of candidates was 25 and included Andrei Lugovoi who faces murder charges for the poisoning of Alexander Litvinenko in London in 2007. However, his ultranationalist party pulled his name from the race. The idea of having a Russian mayor wanted for murder welcoming the world to the Olympic Games was just a bit too much it seems for the Kremlin!

Most candidates, like Alexander Lebedev, the new owner of the London Evening Standard had his name struck off the ballot for so-called "technical reasons." Eventually the number dropped down to 6 which included Boris Nemtsov from the opposition Solidarity movement and Yuri Dzagania, the communist candidate - both represented some real challenge yet polled only 13.6 and 6.75 per cent respectively.

During the campaign opposition candidates complained about intimidation and dirty tricks. Boris Nemtsov - my favourite in the race - was visibly excluded from speaking in the media, instead broadcast TV ran a smear campaign against him asserting he would ruin the local economy. At one point he was attacked by unidentified assailants pouring ammonia over him. Nemtsov reportedly blamed the attack on the pro-Kremlin group Nashi, which is notorious for similar political stunts.

In another twist, Nemtsov was also accused by the Sochi election committee of receiving $ 5 000 contribution from a business in New York, which is illegal according to Russian law. Nemtsov returned the money and called the affair a provocation from the Kremlin, intending to disqualify him from the race. It later also appeared the transfer was made by a Brooklyn-registered company, GBR Business Consulting, and a certain Boris Glickstein had no other explanation than he was "asked by someone" to support Nemtsov's campaign.

It also emerged that Nemtsov told the Moscow Times that thousands of people had been bussed in and pressured to vote for Pakhomov via early voting  - or risk losing their jobs! Additionally residents from Abkhazia, the breakaway region in neighbouring Georgia that Russia regards as independent, were brought in to vote in Russian Sochi. Add to this that opposition billboards and other campaign material were systematically removed every night, what you get is elections - Russian style!

Commenting on the election Boris Nemtsov's campaign manager said: "Putin's supporters have serious financial interests in Sochi. The mayor will have his hand on an enormous investment budget and it is important to have someone who can be controlled and who will turn a blind eye to corruption."

The Russian president, Dmitry Medvedev hailed the election as: "a fully fledged political battle that was good for democracy!"

Alexander Lebedev, who was removed from the race, on the other hand likened the mayoral process in Sochi to an election in Zimbabwe!

Joseph Stalin was even more blunt about such things. He said: "The most important thing is not to win the election - the thing is to win the count."

Things haven't changed all that much, have they?

Ivar Amundsen

Director, Chechnya Peace Forum