Soon after polls closed in regional elections this month, a blogger called Uborshizzza huddled away in his Moscow apartment began dicing up the results on his computer. It took him only a few hours to detect what he saw as a pattern of unabashed ballot-stuffing: how else was it possible that in districts with suspiciously high turnouts in this city, Vladimir V. Putin’s party received heaps of votes? The blog spread on the Russian Internet, along with similar findings by a small band of amateur sleuths, numbers junkies and assorted other muckrakers. Out went their call: This election was dirty! We demand a new one!

The country’s response: avert its eyes. There was none of the sort of outrage on the streets that occurred in Iran when backers of Mahmoud Ahmadinejad were accused of rigging the election for him. Nor the international clamour that greeted the voting in Afghanistan.

The apparent absence of a spirited reaction says a lot about the deep apathy in Russia, where people grew disillusioned with politics under Communism and have seen little reason to alter their view. The thinking seems to be that Putin is in charge and the Opposition is feeble, so there is no point in trying to get your voice heard.

Putin, the prime minister and former president, is popular in part because he is given credit for the economic gains and stability of the last decade. He has also suppressed or co-opted the Opposition. Fairly or unfairly, his party had enormous advantages in the October 11 elections and was certain to triumph.

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