Many Do Not See US as Global Democracy Mentor: Kremlin Spokesman

By holding a "summit for democracy", the US is trying to lecture the other countries, but such admonitions are not taken seriously by many states, Russian Presidential Spokesman Dmitry Peskov said on Wednesday.

"America, which still claims no matter what to be the world's mentor when it comes to so-called democracy, (is making) already a second attempt to gather a number of countries it sees as its students in order to engage in moralizing," Peskov said about the 'summit for democracy'.

"Those who agreed to attend this class were free to do so, of course. It’s their sovereign right, but here, in fact, many see that such attempts to divide the world into first-rate and second-rate countries are now seen by many with a smile," Peskov noted. In his opinion, the 'summit for democracy' "can hardly be regarded as a serious event."

The second 'summit for democracy' is being held on March 29-30 by video link. It is co-chaired by Zambia, the Republic of Korea, Costa Rica, the Netherlands and the United States. The first summit was organized by the US last December. It was held virtually, too. The US side invited representatives from 110 states and territories.

The list included the Chinese island of Taiwan, but Egypt, China, Russia, Turkey and several other countries were absent. Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said the event primarily represented countries obeying Washington's policies, and also some of those who, while having their own vision of the international order, wished to maintain good relations with the United States. Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova described such events as a manifestation of US neocolonial practices.