Speaking about democracies - which I was - no, they don't.
Now you may think they do, because you're apparently one of these people who support Brexit and think anyone saying that was a bad idea was in some way trying to influence the British referendum - but the fact is of course that political leaders and different nations national media of course still have the right to hold an opinion on things happening in other countries.
Obama or Merkel or even Putin expressing an opinion on Brexit or media in those nations expressing an opinion on Brexit isn't a problem - it's completely normal and acceptable.
A country's intelligence service placing fake news and ads, deploying tens of thousands of bot accounts and doing all kind of shady shit in an attempt to surreptitiously influence sentiment in another nation - or breaking into a political party's servers and releasing their internal communication in an attempt to do the same - that's something COMPLETELY different!
Obama or Merkel or even Putin - or any media outlet in the world - are free to express any opinion they like on anything. And when they do, everyone knows where they come from and has a chance to understand that they may have ulterior motives in holding the opinion they do.
But Russian intelligence operatives posing as Americans where active deceiving American voters in an attempt to influence the US presidential election surreptitiously - that's what makes what the Russians did completely different and illegal.
0
@MiskisM
Speaking about democracies - which I was - no, they don't.
Now you may think they do, because you're apparently one of these people who support Brexit and think anyone saying that was a bad idea was in some way trying to influence the British referendum - but the fact is of course that political leaders and different nations national media of course still have the right to hold an opinion on things happening in other countries.
Obama or Merkel or even Putin expressing an opinion on Brexit or media in those nations expressing an opinion on Brexit isn't a problem - it's completely normal and acceptable.
A country's intelligence service placing fake news and ads, deploying tens of thousands of bot accounts and doing all kind of shady shit in an attempt to surreptitiously influence sentiment in another nation - or breaking into a political party's servers and releasing their internal communication in an attempt to do the same - that's something COMPLETELY different!
Obama or Merkel or even Putin - or any media outlet in the world - are free to express any opinion they like on anything. And when they do, everyone knows where they come from and has a chance to understand that they may have ulterior motives in holding the opinion they do.
But Russian intelligence operatives posing as Americans where active deceiving American voters in an attempt to influence the US presidential election surreptitiously - that's what makes what the Russians did completely different and illegal.