[flohofwoe]

Captain Obvious here, but the number of defenestrations (or generally mysterious "suicides" of people not agreeing enough with the government) is much higher in Russia than in the US.

In the US you might get your funds cancelled, in Russia you'll get your life cancelled instead - and not in the metaphorical sense.

Also as incompetent as the current US government is, the incompetence of the Russian government is on a whole different level (the "3 days to Kyiv" are taking longer than the whole "Great Patriotic War").

> Russia is a de-jure democracy

As is North Korea, it must be even more democratic than the rest of the world because it calls itself "Democratic People's Republic of Korea" ;)

[bigfudge]

They have a head start on you, but you're catching up quickly! Worth remembering they have been shooting peaceful protestors recently in the US too.

Trump and Hegseth are explicit in their admiration for Putin and Xi. So being technically right here is largely to miss the point. The trajectory the US is on is pretty clear.

[flohofwoe]

I'm not from the US and neither do I try to defend the current US government.

Just pointing out that Putin has systematically turned Russia into a full-blown fascist autocracy, but even in Russia this took nearly two decades until all opposition was crushed.

MAGA has the same goal (turning the US into a fascist autocracy), but I bet it will be much harder and would take much longer to dismantle the checks-and-balances system in the US as completely as Putin did in Russia.