Hello and welcome to the intelligence from The Economist.

I'm your host, Shashank Joshi, filling in for Jason Palmer.

Every weekday, we provide a fresh perspective on the events shaping your world.

The Gates Foundation stands like a colossus over the world of public health, handing out huge

sums of money to eradicate disease. But as the foundation deals with the divorce of its co-founders,

Bill and Melinda Gates, we look at why it has room for improvement. And perhaps you're listening

to this show with a cup of tea in your hand. If so, there's more going on in there than you probably realized.

We look at new research that shows how the subtle and delicate flavors of black tea

rely on microorganisms hard at work on the leaves.

First up, though.

In Russia, the winner of this weekend's legislative elections was not a surprise.

Early tallies show that United Russia, the party that supports Vladimir Putin, has come first. The party's general secretary congratulated supporters on a clean and honest victory.

But according to independent observers, the election was anything but clean and honest.

And more pressingly for Mr. Putin, it was not an out-and-out victory.

With over two-thirds of the votes counted, his party won 48% of the vote.

That's a smaller percentage than the last time elections were held.

That result comes despite the fact that Russia has jailed the prominent dissident Alexei Navalny

and banned many opposition parties from running.

Yet, as ever with Russia, while the final tally is still being counted,

the spin on the results has already begun.

There are several headlines, depending on whose view you take.

If you look at the Kremlin's headline, it's landslide election, great victory, triumph

...