Quote Originally Posted by 14Russian View Post
My final reply for a while unless some new posters participate. Sorry. The U.S. is a democracy if you consider that democracies ...A) don't work and B) are flawed since it is empowerment of special interest groups and a dumbing down of the masses. Imho, whether you want to call America an oligarchy or democracy, is rather irrelevant. Those who find democracy to be an ideal will obviously disagree.

Whether approval ratings are high or low or election % are at 80% or 90%, is not enough info to go on. What was the turn out? What is the evidence that the entire election was fair or untainted. Sorry, but you obviously don't talk to many Russians. Talking to a bunch of Putin fans here is not going to provide a fair sample. If you insist you have never heard of any Russian citizens or politicians claim of rigged results and interfering with elections, then I question how much you have investigated what happens in Russia. Plus, the media is controlled and there is a heavy influence on that industry to what they will spin and how they will do it. So, having "80% vote for Putin' is more or less not indicative of firm support or a functioning political system that approves of the status quo. On the other hand, one could possibly argue that the electorate's minds are molded to support the status quo based on repetive conditioning to accept the current system since citizens would have to take time to weed through information outlets which are all presenting information how they (i.e. the Government) want it delivered.

It should not be rocket science that you can have corruption in both the USA AND Russia and there isn't one that is 'better' than the other. Corruption is...uh, corruption.

Thanks for reading. Good day.
It's been a very interesting discussion. And tbh, it's also summer and I haven't had a lot of time to participate either (I get a lot of my links from dad). But yeah, I don't believe that there's even been a government that wasn't corrupt in some way but I don't really consider it to be that important - unless most of the people in a country are seriously oppressed and starving. I don't see that happening in the US or Russia so I don't believe the corruption is that serious in either country.
I think I already mentioned that people are a mix of good and bad traits. Laws control some of the bad traits but not all of them and they don't do very much to control the bad traits of wealthy people. I've learned that much from my own personal experiences. When I mess up, I learn not to do it again but without any serious consequences. That's not how it happens for people that don't have money.

Anyway, it's still very interesting how so many laws in Russia are approved by the people. 76% of Russians wanted the anti-gay-propaganda laws and over 80% wanted the annexation of Crimea. Also, the job approval ratings (imo) are more important than the elections. If a President gets most of the votes but he doesn't do very much that the people approve of then that's tons worse than if a President gets into office with a rigged election and does what the people want him to do. And btw, since the governments have so much influence in the media then it would be impossible to really know if an election was or wasn't rigged. That's true for America too.
That's just another reason why I see Russia and the US as being different but equal. It's also why I pasted the Russian flag on the American South on my map. As for Christian values, the American South is more like Russia than the American North. We don't support all the Federal gay rights laws and our State has even fought the Federal government to keep the Ten Commandments in the State Capital building. Our governor even said "We are a Christian State founded on Christian values.". Russia is very Christian too but they don't have to fight the Federal government for support.

So yeah, you won't find as many Russophobes in the American South as you will in the American North. And you won't find very many Pussy Riot supporters either.
Btw, I agree with what SergeMak says about the Kiev government but since the thread is about Russophobia/Russophilia, I've mostly just been focusing on that.