That 97% should be a big hint about the validity of the vote. Typically the only folks who win 97% of the vote are dictators. It is interesting how often that percentage crops up in sham elections.
I guess 97% sounds more legitimate than 98% to some.
That makes no sense. Russia has been weakening for a long time now relative to the rest of the world. A very weak Russia with all those nukes is a greater danger to the US than a slowly declining one.