Russian TV Airs Empty Stage As Candidates Skip Debate

You sometimes hear of a prima donna candidate skipping out on a televised debate, like Trump did recently. However, in Russia they do "democracy" a little bit differently than anywhere else. There, late last month, none of the candidates bothered to show up and it was cancelled after just 15 seconds, with the startled host apologizing and left going to regularly scheduled programming.

Source: Moscow Times

Russian television aired what is perhaps one of the world’s shortest political debates after none of the candidates for next month’s regional elections showed up for the event.

The state broadcaster Rossia’s regional affiliate in the Siberian region of Kemerovo went ahead with the debate program on Wednesday evening despite the no-shows.

“Hello, we’re broadcasting joint campaign events for the elections to the legislative assembly of Kuzbass,” said the host Andrei Toropov.

“No one came to the studio, so regular programming will follow,” he added, wrapping up 15 seconds of the broadcast.

Okay, so where were they?

Candidates from the Communist Party and the far-right Liberal Democratic Party (LDPR), who are leading the local party tickets, were supposed to take part in the televised debate, according to the business daily Kommersant.

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