特别是在伊拉克问题上，普京主张反对西方促进民主并非抵制民主本身，而是抵制西方在俄罗斯的“主权民主”上进行干预，因而赢得了坚实的公众同情。
Especially in view of the Iraq experience, Putin has won substantial public sympathy by arguing that opposition to Western democracy promotion is resistance not to democracy itself, but to Western intervention against Russian “sovereign democracy.”