MOSCOW, July 10 (Itar-Tass) - The latest events in Egypt have less in common with democracy, State Duma Foreign Affairs Committee Chairman Alexei Pushkov said.
Speaking at a press conference at the Itar-Tass news agency on Wednesday, Pushkov said, “The events in Egypt nowhere near democracy. There is no democracy here.”
The lawmaker put forth three arguments. Particularly, he said, “The president, who was elected, [Mohamed Morsi] was overthrown a year later.” In addition, he said, “The process cannot be democratic when military come to power.”
Pushkov said he is convinced that manipulations from outside “are behind popular revolt. In fact, this is the revolt of the part of the population and mainly in major cities - Cairo and Alexandria”. “People were taken out of at streets and learnt how to overthrow the president,” Pushkov said.
He believes that “the forces outside Egypt are behind this”.
Alexei Pushkov added that he feared "further serious complications" of the situation in Egypt.
“In the name of democracy a fierce struggle for power is going on” he stated. “This occurs not only in Egypt.”
“Democracy is when those who are dissatisfied with the results of the elections are elected. In this sense, oddly enough, the Egyptian situation is slightly reminiscent of the ‘orange revolution’” said the MP.
He believes the events in Egypt, "sum up the first phase of the so-called ‘Arab Spring’ and open up a new stage." At the same time he mentioned that he had specifically used the expression ‘so-called’ because there is "doubt whether it is spring or, on the contrary, winter, given that the region has entered into a long period of chaos and instability."
“What is happening now in Egypt is the pursuit of the ghost of democracy. The ghost of democracy is haunting the Middle East” Pushkov paraphrased Karl Marx. “But it is just a ghost, it's not democracy. These countries are not ready for democracy, they lack of established social structures and developed civil society. "