Russia does not need the kind of “democracy” practiced in the West, Ella Pamfilova has said
Ella Pamfilova © Sputnik / Anton Denisov
The collective West seems to have abandoned democracy for minority rule and Russia wants nothing to do with it, Ella Pamfilova, head of the Russian Central Election Commission, said on Friday.
“In my understanding, democracy is simply a mechanism of electing a government,” Pamfilova said, “But in the Western understanding …What is happening now in the West? That is not rule by the majority, but by the minority. We don’t need that kind of democracy.”
Pamfilova was speaking at the ‘Territory of Meaning’ forum, and was asked to address a statement by Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov, whom the New York Times quoted as saying that Russia did not have a democracy, but a “costly bureaucracy.”
“I agree with Dmitry Sergeyevich, we don’t actually have such a system – meaning, what they practice in the West – and don’t need it, seeing how it’s caused the degradation of everything, everywhere,” Pamfilova said.
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Peskov has said his words were “conveyed incorrectly” and mistranslated by the American outlet, to make it appear that he did not consider the upcoming presidential elections to be democratic. The Kremlin spokesman insisted that he had merely pointed out the overwhelming popularity of President Vladimir Putin would make his re-election a formality.
Pamfilova also addressed the “costly bureaucracy” claim, saying that the Central Election Commission is actually one of the most effective government agencies.
“With minimal costs, we solve new problems as efficiently as possible. And I think that many departments should learn from how we do it,” Pamfilova noted.
Earlier this year, Pamfilova warned that several Western countries were already working to disrupt the 2024 presidential election and “discredit the electoral process” in Russia by any means.
She insisted that the Russian electoral system was robust and well-adapted, citing the example of the July 20202 vote for constitutional amendments during the Covid-19 pandemic, which took place in the span of a week, with some Russians allowed to vote online for the first time.
