Democracy Quote by Masha Gessen

There is no democracy in Russia. Dictators do not go away through the vote. Putin relies on riot police, thousands of them, with heavy…

— Garry Kasparov

For 17 years, elections in Russia have followed the same pattern: Nobody criticizes Putin, nobody runs a real election campaign, the whole process takes…

— Alexei Navalny

Putin doesn't conduct elections in the Western sense of elections. This is more accurately probably described as a plebiscite, where people are supposed to…

— Mikhail Khodorkovsky

When you say politics, you conjure a whole bunch of associations: elections, campaigning, debates, fundraising. None of this exists in Russia! We are still…

— Garry Kasparov

I think that Vladimir Putin has decided, in a very strategic way, to turn the tables and do everything in his power to, as…

— Robert M. Gates

All through the years of the Soviet empire, its Politburo held 'elections.' Of course, calling something an election and actually having it be an…

— Benazir Bhutto

Putin is a former KGB agent. He's a thug. He was not elected in a way that most people would consider a credible election.

— Mitch McConnell

There may be evidence the Russians are trying to tamper with elections. The Russians are trying to infiltrate everything we do, and they've succeeded.…

— Rush Limbaugh

To describe Russian politics as "managed democracy" - and that's sometimes hard for outsiders to understand, because a lot of the forms of democracy…

— Anne Applebaum

The Russians have a long history of interfering in elections - theirs and other people's.

— James Clapper

If Putin decides to run, which we are assuming that he will, there really isn't anything that can stop him. He can manipulate the…

— Anne Applebaum

In Russia an authoritarian leader is running the country. You can't fight Putin with elections because he controls them. That's why demonstrations are the…

— Alexei Navalny