So? The American government undermined democratic elections in Italy in 1948 (overtly dumping millions of dollars into the hands of anti-Communist candidates), in Chile in the 1970s, and even in Russia in the 1990s.The outcome seems to be very important to Vladamir Putin, and China, and the rest of the world, so much so that they're flagrantly trying to put their thumbs on the scales. The outcome of this election seems to matter so much to the Kremlin that they're pumping tons of money into misinformation campaigns. Maybe you should phone them up and tell Putin it doesn't really matter and he should save his money.
I find your appeal to nationalism - an ironic mirror-image of MAGAt nationalism - uneffective and, well, unappealing. Nationalism is itself repugnant.What many Russians, but few Americans, know is that 20 years before Russia tried to swing an American presidential election, America tried to swing a presidential election in Russia. The year was 1996. Boris Yeltsin was seeking a second term, and Bill Clinton desperately wanted to help. “I want this guy to win so bad,” he told Deputy Secretary of State Strobe Talbott, “it hurts.”Clinton liked Yeltsin personally. He considered him Russia’s best hope for embracing democracy and capitalism. And he appreciated Yeltsin’s acquiescence during nato’s march eastward, into the former Soviet bloc.
Unfortunately for Clinton, ordinary Russians appreciated their leader far less. Yeltsin’s “shock-therapy” economic reforms had reduced the government’s safety net, and produced a spike in unemployment and inflation. Between 1990 and 1994, the average life expectancy among Russian men had dropped by an astonishing six years. When Yeltsin began his reelection campaign in January 1996, his approval rating stood at 6 percent, lower than Stalin’s.
So the Clinton administration sprang into action. It lobbied the International Monetary Fund to give Russia a $10 billion loan, some of which Yeltsin distributed to woo voters. Upon arriving in a given city, he often announced, “My pockets are full.”
