Even dog shows in Russia are rigged

If Russia Today is to be believed, out of 12,000 dogs competing at the recent Eurasia-2009 dog show in Moscow, President Dmitry Medvedev’s three dogs just happened to all win top prizes:

The president’s two English setters, Joly and Daniel, got first place in their individual classes, while his golden retriever, Aldu, received a silver medal at the Eurasia-2009 dog show.

I find this about as convincing as a Chechen election, but one audience member swears that the presidential pooches deserved their honors:

“I understand that some people may think that the president’s dogs only won because of their master, but his dogs really performed well. And they are beautiful.”

Whatever. The judges are just lucky Putin’s dogs Koni and Tosya weren’t competing. Awkward.

DMITRY ASTAKHOV/AFP/Getty Images