> Russia is not a democracy How do you determine this though? There are candidates. Majority of the people vote. The one voted for the most wins. Sure, _some_

> Russia is not a democracy How do you determine this though? There are candidates. Majority of the people vote. The one voted for the most wins. Sure, _some_ candidates are in jail (or dead) — but that's strictly because they were convicted in a fair trial, they're criminals, you see. I argue that there are similarities between two regimes blacklisting political candidates from the democratic process. > When in a real democracy If we cherry-pick the ones we like to be "real", and the ones we dislike to be "fake", then by definition the "real" ones are the good ones. > Not in Ukraine either E.g. https://www.theguardian.com/world/2022/mar/20/ukraine-suspends-11-political-parties-with-links-to-russia https://www.theguardian.com/world/2022/mar/20/ukraine-suspen... Sure, not a court per se — it was apparently the country's national security and defense council that took the decision to ban the parties from any political activity. But I agree, it's whatever. > Trump was elected after that! Yep, despite well-documented efforts to block him from running. The outcome is I think a win for democracy. That democrats think of this as a defeat is amusing to me. (I'm an foreigner and don't live or vote in the US, so no horse in the race either way.)