For democratic elections, read stage-managed coronation. Anyone who thinks the charade that took place in Russia yesterday represents anything like a fair contest has not been paying attention. Here is a country that did not need an election to predict the name of its next president: Dmitri Medvedev, Vladimir Putin's chosen successor.

In this farcical contest the only genuinely democratic challenger, Mikhail Kasyanov, was disqualified on a technicality, millions of students, teachers and civil servants were virtually ordered to vote a particular way, media coverage and publicity were grotesquely one-sided and much of the voting was not secret. Independent journalists feared for their lives. Ironically, only the old Russian Communist Party, an echo from the country's one-party past, put up a spirited fight, tackling the government on housing, inflation and the widening incomes gap. The one small delegation of international observers - from the Council of Europe - was critical of nearly every aspect of the campaign and yesterday witnessed widespread voting irregularites. The turn-out - especially in the regions, beyond the reach of independent monitors - was suspiciously high and many Russians were under pressure to vote under controlled conditions at work using absentee ballots.

This is not to say that Mr Medvedev would not have been elected anyway. Mr Putin has presided over a period of unparalleled economic growth and Russians have enjoyed the image of their President's bellicose posturing on the world stage. Those born in the Soviet era feel freer than they were then, even if the Putin era has seen the systematic rolling back of freedom of speech, human rights and the rule of law.

It is hard to imagine a starker contrast than that between the US and Russian elections. While the former is followed with intense interest around the globe, the latter has attracted so little excitement that before this weekend few outside Russia could have named even the frontrunner. Hillary Clinton fumbled for his name last week. This is not only because the outcome was seen as a foregone conclusion but also because Russia is deemed less important. This is a mistake. Russia now accounts for a quarter of Europe's gas supplies and, through its seat on the UN Security Council, is able to exercise disproportionate influence in disputes in which it holds an interest, especially Kosovo and Iran.

It is high time Europe renegotiated its relationship with the bullying Russian bear. The EU should work out a unified energy policy and present a united front. After all, the combined EU economy is 15 times that of Russia and half of Russia's trade is with the EU. A truly united Europe could spell out the terms of engagement by addressing issues such as human rights, the rule of law, the treatment of neighbouring states and democracy that is more than a front for brutal authoritarianism.