Gorbachev comments on the Iraqi "elections"

Former Soviet president Mikhail Gorbachev called the Iraqi parliamentary elections a profanation.

In an interview with the Interfax news agency, he said the elections are “very far from what true elections are. And even though I am a supporter of elections and of the transfer of power to the people of Iraq, these elections were fake.”

[...]

Earlier, the Russian Foreign Ministry said it respected the results of Iraq’s elections. However, the statement said that it was important for the Iraqi people to acknowledge and accept the poll’s results. Russian President Vladimir Putin also welcomed the parliamentary elections in Iraq, calling it a “step in the right direction” and a “positive event”.
  Mosnews.com article

I always thought that Gorbachev (who was roundly demonized in the American press) was Russia's best hope. He seemed to understand that moving from one form of government to another must be a slow, painstaking, orderly process. And now I wonder how much the U.S. had to do with fomenting the urgent impatience for "democracy" in that country that saw the inept, insane Boris Yeltsin take the helm and drive it to its knees. I don't know a lot about Russian politics, and I should like to know more. But then, there's so much of our own that's kept secret which needs to be brought to the light of day, and I'm getting old and tired.