Release‑valve elections can backfire

Authoritarian rulers sometimes allow token or semi‑competitive parties on ballots as a controlled outlet to measure public sentiment and defuse unrest. But the Yabloko episode in Russia shows that a long‑marginalized opposition, once given a visible outlet, can attract real protest support and force the regime into a political dilemma. — If true, this undermines assumptions used by analysts and policymakers that such engineered pluralism is reliably stabilizing and suggests new risks for autocratic durability and election monitoring.