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There is, it has to be said, very little insanity that is too insane for Russian state TV. You're listening to war College, a weekly podcast that brings you the stories from behind the

front lines.

Here are your hosts, Matthew Galt and Jason Fields. Hello and welcome'm Matthew Gault. You'll never guess who's going to be elected president of Russia this month.

You'll never guess who's going to be elected president of Russia this month.

Actually, I'll bet you've guessed already.

The only way Vladimir Putin doesn't get reelected is if a foreign country interferes with the election.

Oh, wait, too soon. Anyway show favorite and Russia expert

Mark Goliotti is here to talk to us about the Russian election and more

important what comes next. So welcome back Mark. Hi it's good to be back online.

So other than Vladimir Putin who's officially in the race?

Well I mean there's a cast of several as they try to give this the appearance of a real election, a grown-up election.

Really, there's only, I would say, two people we need to talk about and then one person who we need to talk about who isn't standing.

The two people who are worth talking about briefly is Grudinin, who is the Communist Party candidate,

except that he's not Haxed your Communist Party candidate, except that he's not actually a Communist Party member.

And the other one is Senia Sobchak, a former socialite, so she hates that expression,

who is standing as a sort of general vote for me if you don't like the

way things are going kind of candidate. But the, in some ways the real opposition figure is

Alexei Namani, the anti-corruption campaigner who precisely for that

...