ZCZC
BFF-33
US-POLITICS-RUSSIA, FOCUS
Russians see US democracy ‘limping’ after Capitol stormed
MOSCOW, Jan 7, 2021 (BSS/AFP) – Russian officials on Thursday pointed to
the storming of the US Capitol as evidence of America’s decline, with one
saying it showed US democracy was “limping on both feet”.
After the stunning events in Washington, many in Moscow said the United
States was no longer in any position to lecture other countries on freedom
and democracy.
Under banners reading “Storm of the Capitol” and “Chaos in Washington”,
Russian state television showed rolling images of mobs of Donald Trump
supporters breaking down barricades and swarming the building, as security
forces fired tear gas and police drew guns inside.
“The losing side has more than enough grounds to accuse the winner of
falsifications — it is clear that American democracy is limping on both
feet,” Konstantin Kosachyov, the chair of the Russian upper house’s foreign
affairs committee, said in a post on Facebook.
“The celebration of democracy has ended. It has, unfortunately, hit rock
bottom, and I say this without a hint of gloating.
“America no longer charts the course and so has lost all right to set it.
And, even more so, to impose it on others.”
Moscow has long bristled at US criticism of the state of Russian democracy
under President Vladimir Putin, accusing Washington of hypocrisy and
condescension.
Russian commentators gleefully pointed to Trump’s refusal to recognise the
results of November’s election, and growing divisions in the United States,
as evidence of the country’s decline.
The Kremlin has been accused of fostering those divisions with a campaign
of interference and disinformation, including alleged attempts to disrupt the
2016 election in Trump’s favour that prompted an FBI investigation.
With Russians celebrating Orthodox Christmas on Thursday there was no
immediate reaction from the Kremlin or foreign ministry.
– No more ‘beacon of democracy’ –
But pro-Kremlin lawmakers jumped on the unrest.
“The United States certainly cannot now impose electoral standards on
other countries and claim to be the world’s ‘beacon of democracy’,” the
foreign affairs chief in the lower house, Leonid Slutsky, told Russian news
agencies.
He said Washington was suffering after having promoted “colour
revolutions” around the world, like anti-Moscow uprisings in Ukraine and
Georgia and the recent protests in Belarus.
“The boomerang of the colour revolutions is turning back on the United
States,” Slutsky said. “All this threatens to turn into a crisis in the
American system of power.”
Others appeared to use the events to justify Moscow’s domestic policies.
Anton Gorelkin, a lawmaker on the lower house telecommunications
committee, praised Twitter and Facebook for suspending Trump’s accounts,
saying it showed the need to better control social media.
“Social networks must work under strict rules within a legal framework.
Because absolute freedom of information is becoming a weapon in the hands of
extremists,” he said in a post on his Telegram channel.
The United States and other Western countries have repeatedly condemned
Russia for moves to tighten controls on social media.
Washington has been a fierce critic of moves by Putin to clamp down on
dissent, most recently accusing Russia of “intensifying repression of its
civil society” with a new law last month expanding rules against NGOs and
media considered foreign agents.
Moscow says the US cynically uses claims of democratic failings to pursue
its own agenda and maintain its global position.
Tensions between the Cold War-era rivals have hit new highs in recent
years, with a raft of US sanctions imposed on Russian officials, disputes
over arms control treaties and American accusations of major Russian hacking
attacks.
BSS/AFP/IJ/1616 hrs