This was also true with Russia, where Navalny was hardly left wing.

Even the so-called Communist Party of Russia is a vestigial remnant. That is as much a result of the socio-economic rewiring of the nation after Yeltsin’s coup as any functional dictatorship. People are saturated in Putin-friendly right-wing media in Russia not unlike how Americans have been surrounded by ultra-orthodox conservative news media.

What’s the difference between a democracy and a dictatorship in a nation where mass media and big business are all beholden to a handful of oligarchs?