The events unfolding in Siberia were naturally unknown to Moscow.
If Rosiana had known that someone was buying votes at high prices in her stronghold, she would have jumped to her feet immediately.
But far away in Moscow, she knew nothing...
On January 23, the second round of the election had been underway for three days. Voting in some regions was basically complete, so news outlets large and small began speculating about the results.
Of course, the media was not sitting at home making up results out of thin air. They had dispatched quite a few reporters to polling stations across various regions to conduct rough on-site counts and surveys, so their predictions were generally fairly accurate.
Just like during the first round, before voting had even ended, several major media outlets had predicted that Medvedev, Gryzlov, and Rosiana would advance together. However, the three were extremely close in votes, and a second round would be needed to determine the winner. There might even be a third round...
When the results came out, they proved that those media predictions had been accurate.
According to the latest media projections, most believed that Gryzlov and Medvedev were neck and neck in the second round, while Rosiana was beginning to show signs of decline.
The most likely final outcome was Rosiana's elimination, with Gryzlov and Medvedev advancing to the decisive round. In other words, a third round was unavoidable...
This also matched the understanding of most people in politics.
After all, Rosiana's foundation was weaker, and she lacked staying power. As the election progressed, she would gradually fall behind.
Gryzlov and Medvedev, meanwhile, both came from the Silovik Group. Even though the faction had now split apart, the power it had accumulated over the years remained immense!
Moreover, both of them had always