Russian scholar slams so-called Summit for Democracy as ideological crusade

BRUSSELS - The so-called Summit for Democracy led by the United States is akin to "launching an ideological crusade" against other countries, Andrey Kortunov, director general of the Russian International Affairs Council, has recently written.

The attempt "reduces the multi-color palette of the modern world to a minimalist black and white graphics of a global fight between" what it sees as democracies and autocracies, Kortunov argued in an article published by website Modern Diplomacy.

"If the goal is to advertise the US political, social and economic model, Washington should probably delay the summit and put its house in order first," the expert said.

"History has a lot of means at its disposal to punish leaders, who believe that they possess a 'one size fits all' model, which could successfully replace the existing diversity with an imposed universalism", he concluded.

Modern Diplomacy is an on-line platform for assessing and evaluating international issues.