across talk a new period in russian politics i'm joined by john laughlin in paris he is director of studies at the institute of democracy and cooperation in london we have married a chef ski she is the chief editorial writer and a columnist at the independent and here in the studio with me is ben eris he is editor in chief of business new europe or a cross talk rose in effect that means you can jump in anytime you want but i'm going to go to you first here in the studio was this election a game changer how was this election different from previous election day it was different in the sense that you know it was a lot more in so much as a person have to play to the gallery in the way that he has done before i think that thinks is a good thing yes i think the big. range is you know up until this election hootin has been above politics and he hasn't been a politician he was just the president whatever you want to call him however the demonstrations you know he was dictating the debate by saying this is important and then everybody talked about whatever he chose the difference with this election