ABSTRACT
The scope, character and legitimacy of interference in the internal affairs of other countries is contested, and is one of the key divisive issues in Cold War II. The United States actively advances democracy-promotion strategies, prompting Russia to adopt repressive legislation and go on the counter-offensive, establishing a damaging cycle that is deleterious for Russia’s own democratic development and poisons international politics. On both sides, the struggle is wreathed in layers of deception and self-deception. All this takes place against the background of geopolitical contestation and a struggle over the appropriate European security order. The intensification of sanction wars undermines diplomacy, especially when diplomats are expelled and diplomatic infrastructure closed. However, popular views are more complex, as demonstrated by a brief review of opinion surveys. There is scope for rapprochement, although there is a strong popular basis for the Sino-Russian alignment.
