Putin says Russia and U.S. should agree not to meddle in each other's elections
uk.reuters.com
uk.reuters.com
There's no comparing that to all the hacking, tampering, psy-ops on social media, and general sowing of public unrest the Russians are accused of in '16 and currently. About 2 orders of magnitude difference?
To the general point however, of the US interfering in other governments, yes absolutely, US has run assassinations, overthrows, insurgent support, and lots of other stuff we'll never learn of.
The US manipulated the IMF to give a 10.3 billion dollar loan, and then advised Yeltsin to use that money to buy votes. The US stalled election watch dogs and prevented them from realizing their duties fully. The US sent intelligence agents to Russia to advise Yeltsin on what his tactics should be, and as we have already seen they were highly fraudulent.
The US absolutely was as involved, if not more, in meddling with the 1996 Russian elections as Russia was in 2016. Just because the tactics weren't the same - Yeltsin had already seized control of the media to use it to give himself good coverage, and there was already public unrest - doesn't mean what the US did has a lesser magnitude.
I know that a lot of people in Russia survived because of humanitarian aid from US though.
I’m sure you’ve heard a lot of things that put the US in a positive light. That’s great but doesn’t say anything except that the US says a lot of good things about themselves.
Bad job, comrade.
Life expectancy and GNP per capita (accounting for inflation) still haven't recovered from under the Soviet Union.
That doesn't sound too bad?
Popular <==> controversy.
Meddling in elections is profitable for lots of people, not just the Russians. I'd stop fixating on them.
Maybe as a state actor they can do more than commerce, but that's quite a socialist point of view.
We seem to have forgotten the Macedonians - https://www.wired.com/2017/02/veles-macedonia-fake-news/
As for democracy, if you wanted democracy in Russia it would have been good not to have a US-backed coup in Russia to prevent democracy and secure the power of Yeltsin. Or are dictators also fine as long as they do your bidding?
Stop fantasizing about ruining yet another nation. If democracy comes to Russia, it won't be by the hands of the US, it will be from the Russian people themselves. Meanwhile, if you want to help, keep your meddling hands out of there.
Otherwise, I get your point. We should all lick American boots and hope they will be nice to us.
And regarding Afghanistan, Libya and Syria - you can thank Russia for the involvement, which continues in latter's even nowadays.
No, you won't tear apart Russia as long as nuclear weapons are ready to launch.
His methods are always questionable! E.g. poisoning opposition leaders.
(And by the way, the need or ability or justification to criticize Russia’s adversaries doesn’t excuse Russia from criticism: i.e. I’m aware that the western world does unfair things, but Russia is a pure dictatorship)
He's not dictator. Russian people voted for him. Just like american people voted for Trump. You might like it or not, you may call them brainwashed, but that's their choice.
> His methods are always questionable! E.g. poisoning opposition leaders.
Nobody in Russia believes to those fiction stories. If they were poisoned by Novichok, they would be dead. I would more believe to NSA poisoning Navalny to paint him as a victim. He's absolutely unpopular in Russia at this moment. There's 0 reason to poison him and 0 reason to let transport him out of the country. Just turn on your logic. This story is absolutely made up by western secret service and propaganda, it's so stupid, I don't know who can believe in it.
> Russia is a pure dictatorship
Again, Russia is not pure dictatorship. Putin clears political landscape, so he can win the elections. That's obvious. It does not make him dictator in my eyes. And it's all words, anyway. I'd prefer dictator who cares about his country, rather than "democratically elected" puppet who'll sell his country to his masters.
He's old anyway, so someone will replace him, one way or another. And many people will remember him fondly, just like many people fondly remember Stalin despite all propaganda against USSR.
He was rather upset with Prokhorov's loss but admitted that that guy wasn't actually popular.
I myself was kicked out by police force under a made-up reason (obstructing work of commission by making them nervous - without even speaking to them) during parliament elections in 2011. When this kind of stuff did not happen, you could see a different result from nearby stations.
Friends of mine reported discrepancies between observed counts of voters and reported results, indicating fake bulletins. And you can find quite a few videos on YouTube with busses/minibuses driving people around to vote multiple times.
FTFY
Last I checked, Bernie Sanders wasn’t poisoned. Last I checked, there was no constitutional amendment to allow Trump to stay in power until 2036.
As for a constitutional amendment to keep Trump in office, it doesn't matter who is in office if a party with the same policies keeps seizing power without the popular vote. It is just as undemocratic.
Not poisoning people because they can't do anything is not an achievement, it's just a prudent use of resources.
The US has also already assassinated political opponents, such as Fred Hampton, or various Union leaders.
[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_involvement_in_r...
He later publicly thanked US for helping him win.
Complete with advising him as he seized control of the media and used it to spread disinformation, forcing an IMF loan that was then used to buy votes, sending US intelligence agents to Russia, the whole deal.
As for direct electoral fraud, the numbers in the election are incredibly fishy even from our historical viewpoint, was fraught with irregularities, much, much less than in the Bolivian elections that the US called illegitimate. This hypocrisy is yet more meddling.
The Communist Party was in the process of decentralizing the economy and increasing democracy. Yeltsin, Putin and Medvedev drove Russia so far into the ground that it is worse than the RSFSR in every single measurable way.
If the people want to elect a Communist Party which agrees to respect elections, who are you to say that they're not allowed and to meddle in their elections?
Focusing on one or two indicators is misleading, on all macro indicators rapid liberalization under Yeltsin has been an unmitigated disaster Russia still hasn't recovered from. Literally millions of excess deaths have happened because of it.
You could just ask a Russian person who lived 1991 as an adult for their opinion, if you want subjective and anecdotal evidence. I know I did.
Finally, a 3 hour queue for food, which was fairly rare under the USSR anyways, is better than dying at the age of 40 from deaths of despair, which you would have a two-digit percentage chance of doing as a Russian male after 1996.
>more than 30% of deaths in 2012 in Russia were attributable to alcohol
Deaths due to alcoholism are, of course, deaths of despair.