Putin's asymmetric assault on democracy in Russia and Europe (2017) (govinfo.gov)

This minority staff report prepared for the use of the committee on foreign relations in the U.S. senate does not mince words.

When reality surpasses fiction, the whole document could have been a plot for a James Bond or Tom Clancy movie but unfortunately it is very real.

What a smorgaboard of bs-- its basically a long-winded narrative that combines a litany of dubious sources to form a conclusion. More interestingly, it relies heavily on entities like RFE/VOA et al, which are technically illegal to distribute inside of the US because its considered propaganda that represents the USs interests and not necessarily the truth-- but there it is cited extensively in reporting of the legislature.

I just want to give one example-- the only part of Russia's interference in Ukraine's 2004 elections that isn't prefixed with "allegedly" is that Putin stood by a candidate during a parade. It then summarises the subsequent events as "protecting the ballot box" without illustrating that there was never any evidence of fraud-- exit poll discrepancies were the entirety of the claim. They tried to do the same thing in 2010 but international monitors were present and quickly put down their fake claims of election fraud.

Meanwhile in "democratic" Ukraine people are subject to extrajudicial execution and or detention, opposition parties are banned, and corruption rules the day.

Russia may be a flawed "democracy" but the idea that it is much different from other eastern european societies, I believe, is flawed.

I believe the war in Ukraine is more about Russian nationalism and pride than some democracy deficiency. Evidence suggests the majority of the people support the war effort.

Democracy is not a perfect antidote for different perceived national interests.