freitasm: @stan, Russia is not a democratic state. The roles of President and Prime Minister have been rolling between two people, there is persecution of people seen as critical of the state.
They aren't a communist state but are an autocratic state in my view.
Whatever Russia may or may not be, they are arguably more democratic than the United States.
They operate a multi-party system which includes a strong element of proportionality in the State Duma.
The US only has two relevant parties.
Election processes are alleged to be corrupt in some places in Russia. I haven't seen any proof.
In the US they use closed-source touch screens to vote and there is no paper trail. A recount is just adding together the totals from the voting machines. Easily cheated.
Pot / Kettle / Black on this one......and Russia actually comes out looking more democratic.