[raquo]

It's the line that Putin and Lavrov (foreign minister) have been pushing since forever: "you westerners are no better than us, stop shaming us for the shady things that we do". That's an easy way to keep your population happy – tell them that life is no better in other countries. Corruption is everywhere, police state is everywhere, etc. And most Russians believe that.

[marksomnian]

Whataboutwhataboutism-ism.

[Sommersonn]

There's a definition for that: "reverse cargo cult". Russians are told to believe that Westerners build their planes from branches and dirt too - but Westerners pretend better.

[bitJericho]

Well it's true in the us, Russia, china, Australia. That's not everywhere but that is quite a lot of ground.

[Retric]

Russia does not have actual meaningful elections. That's a fairly fundamental difference.

[0xbear]

Neither does the US really, in the sense that no matter who wins, you lose.

[bitJericho]

It's true. You can only win an election with piles of money. With gerrymandering and lying. The US government is a train wreck