President Vladimir Putin has never lost an election in Russia. Outside Russia's borders, however, the Kremlin has been learning a different lesson. From Moldova to Hungary — and, more recently, Armenia — Moscow has poured money and political capital into influencing elections abroad. Yet, time and again, the candidates and forces it favored have fallen short. Some of Russia's traditional allies have drifted away from Moscow, embracing pro-Western governments, or have become far more resistant
  • Tiresia@slrpnk.net
    9·
    4 days ago

    A losing record would require the election meddling to by itself decrease the chances of a Russia-favoring party getting elected. If election meddling gets Russia an ally 10% of the time and doesn’t change the outcome 90% of the time, that’s still a net win for Russia.

    If not meddling in elections would have resulted in 80% of European nations having anti-Russian governments and meddling in elections results in 60% of European nations having anti-Russian governments, that too is a winning record for Russia’s election meddling.

    Russia invaded Ukraine and, worse for public opinion, they don’t have a massive entertainment industry that normalizes their aggression.