1. The Russian government is installing web cameras at more than 90,000 polling sites in an effort to undermine expected accusations of widespread fraud in the upcoming presidential election.

    Prime Minister Vladimir Putin announced the initiative after evidence of fraud in last December’s parliamentary elections sparked Russia’s first mass protests since the fall of the Soviet Union. Amateur video footage depicting the alleged fraud at polling sites was widely circulated after those elections.

    Mr. Putin, who is seeking a third presidential term in the March 4 poll, has accused the protest movement of working to delegitimize the electoral process. Broadcasting the elections on the Internet will “completely remove all falsifications,” he said when he announced the project on Dec. 15.

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