Disappointed by Reuters

What is it with journalists who write about other countries without even trying to ascertain the most basic facts? I thought that Reuters was a respectable news agency until I read this:

Pushed to the margins since Putin came to power 12 years ago, some of the prime minister’s fiercest foes are urging Russians to reject the political system he has put in place by spoiling their ballots in Sunday’s State Duma vote. . .

“The question is what people who understand this is a farce should do.”

Their answer: Nakh-Nakh, a bespectacled pig with an orange scarf, a blue beret and a double-entendre of a name that to Russians evokes both the Three Little Pigs and an obscenity which, put more politely, means ‘Go away!’. In a series of animated clips posted on the Internet, the pink-cheeked pig casts his vote, angrily marking the box for each party with an X and adding a big black X across the entire ballot before slipping it through the slot.

This was written by somebody who does not know anything about Russia’s electoral system. Spoiling the ballots actually guarantees that Putin’s party gets the majority in the parliament. The system is set up in a way that hands over votes to the ruling party for every spoiled ballot. Can anybody now make a wild guess as to who is behind this whole “spoil the ballot” campaign?

Many people in Russia are completely ignorant about how their electoral system works and, in spite of the tireless work of dissidents and progressive bloggers, are still buying into the idea that spoiling the ballot will prevent Putin’s party from remaining in power. Here is an example from the same article:

Semyon Zon-Zam, a chamber orchestra director in Moscow, wore an armband at the protest outside the Central Election Commission, said he would be one of [the people who will spoil the ballots].

“The political system is dragging my country into the abyss,” said Zon-Zam, 73. “To vote for any party on the ballot would be to support the a Kremlin project.”

One can understand that a 73-years-old artist who spent the greatest part of his life in the Soviet Union might find it hard to understand how the electoral system works. But shouldn’t a journalists writing for Reuters be more careful with both his facts and his grammar?