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After the Mueller report, it’s clear Putin and Russia aren’t the cause of Western democracy’s problems

  • It has become fashionable to blame Russian interference for cases in which democracy seems to have gone awry – from Brexit to Donald Trump’s presidency
  • The trouble, however, lies more with electoral democracy

Reading Time:3 minutes
Why you can trust SCMP
Russian President Vladimir Putin and US President Donald Trump eye each other during the G20 summit in Buenos Aires, Argentina, on November 30, 2018. Photo: Reuters
After almost two years of investigating, US Special Counsel Robert Mueller has concluded that there was no direct collusion between the Russian government and the Trump presidential campaign.
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Of course, there is enough evidence to suggest that Russia was probably involved in some tangible actions – such as the Democratic National Committee email hacks – aimed at influencing the election, but the actual influence of this is far from determined.

It is more constructive to move on and debate, more concretely, where Western democracies are going wrong. 

The caricature of Russia as a boogieman out to infiltrate and disrupt democratic elections in the West has reached hysterical levels.

We are told that not only was Russia directly involved in helping Brexit happen and then helping Trump win, but that Moscow is now targeting elections across the globe – even in places like Australia where Russia has no obvious national interest.
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