There was a curiously muted international reaction to the allegations of widespread voting irregularities in the recent Russian presidential elections. Numbers were significantly lower in post-election protests within Russia, and most international powers have accepted the result with only superficial negative comment.

But in a continent of profoundly and increasingly undemocratic change, is the lack of reaction so surprising? I wrote in November (here) about the unelected technocrats taking power in Greece and Italy with no democratic mandate for the sweeping economic reforms that they were subsequently to seek to push through. Even these ground-breaking developments have rapidly come to be accepted as uncontroversial, so perhaps the sense is that Russia, where at least lip-service was paid to the idea of democratic elections, should count itself lucky.

So – in the space of a few days Greece and Italy have both acquired new, albeit interim, governments.

In Greece, the new prime minister is Lucas Papademos – not a member of parliament and not, therefore, elected by the Greek people, but apparently qualified for the task of implementing austerity measures in the country by virtue of his former vice-presidency of the European Central Bank. It is reported (here, for example) that “The Greek stock market jumped sharply when Mr Papademos arrived at the presidential palace to join the negotiations on Thursday morning.”