Vladimir Putin excoriated U.S. democracy on Sunday in a speech claiming victory in the Russian presidential election that, despite a war aboard and protests at home, only ever had one possible outcome: extending his political reign for another six years.
“Out of every voice, we are building a common will of the people of [the] Russian Federation,” he said from his campaign headquarters in Moscow, according to the BBC.
He shrugged off international criticism—including from the United States, where a White House National Security Council spokesperson decried the elections as “obviously not free nor fair.”
“What did you want, for them to applaud us?” Putin asked, The Guardian reported. “…Their goal is to contain our development. Of course they’re ready to say anything.”
He went on to suggest “the entire world is laughing” at the U.S., saying it was “a disaster, not a democracy,” according to a translation by Sputnik, a state-owned news agency.
“I have every reason to believe that no democracy, at least in the presidential election campaigns in certain countries of the West, including the United States, does not exist,” he continued.
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