India, Sept. 27 -- The official turnout, according to Russia's Central Election Commission, was reported to be just 59.3 percent of registered voters, a figure the state touted as evidence of robust civic participation.

Elections in Vladimir Putin's Russia are theatrical events, dressed in enough procedural trappings to allow the state to call them democratic. The outcome, of course, is always known before a single ballot is cast. Last week's parliamentary election, in which Putin's party, United Russia, won a record 355 of the 450 Duma seats, is the latest and perhaps starkest performance of that theatre yet.

The numbers alone tell a story of manufactured consensus. United Russia's supermajority eclipses its previous high-water mark of...