Anne ApplebaumMar 18, 2024
It wasn't an "election" in Russia; stop using that word.
It was an orchestrated propaganda exercise designed to convince Russians, and the rest of us, to ignore the catastrophe Putin has inflicted on his nation. 300,000+ Russian men are dead and wounded for no reason at all.
Show threadmr brown  Mar 19, 2024
@anneapplebaum unfortunately that was an *election* and, yes, they voted. You may argue that was not a free or fair election (true), same as other elections, some of which elect our favourite allies.
Such as Azerbaijan (feb 7), or Pakistan (feb 8) and others to come, like Algeria or Tunisia or Senegal (our friend the President just moved the election day!). And of course, EU institutions were in Egypt saying Russian elections were fake.
We're fighting a war, please spare us the propaganda.
Show threadmr brown  
@anneapplebaum ...and I almost forgot the Philippines 🇵🇭 (we're not yet friends with Vietnam, are we? but we would like to... even without a full transition to democracy, wouldn't we?)... our list is long. My suggestion is: just stick to the point. We don't like Putin. Please don't elaborate any further, we might offend current and potential allies.
Mar 19, 2024 at 5:32pmWeb