By the way, some Russians (if not most of them) are also voted for Trump. They escaped fascist dictatorship only to make a fascist dictatorship “at home” (in the US).

I think, people from (toxic) collectivistic cultures are mostly uneducated and they don’t realise what trauma/abuse did to them when they lived in their authoritarian (or democratic but poor and corrupt af) home country. Add do this a propaganda that is aimed, among other things, at Russians themselves abroad, that people among their acquaintances/social networks often spread it as word of mouth. They are easily deceived. And as the result, they continue to vote for such bastards who are capable of primitively manipulating people, even in democratic elections.

I don’t justify them, but I would not blame voters (although people should be held personally responsible for their actions and learn to think for themselves). In working democracy with respected rule of law though, there would be a way to remove those like Trump from office almost immediately or check the votes for possible manipulation. Look, how they did it in Romania recently:

1. “Romanian presidential elections cancelled by constitutional court” - https://www.euractiv.com/section/politics/news/romanian-presidential-elections-canceled-by-constitutional-court/
2. “EU investigates TikTok over alleged Russian meddling in Romanian vote” - https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cm2v13nz202o

If Trump became president and the country immediately collapsed, then the question arises whether checks and balances were fair before.

Some other articles:

1. “How TikTok Almost Won the Presidency for Romania’s Far-Right Candidate” - https://vsquare.org/romania-tiktok-campaign-presidential-election-far-right-candidate-russia/
2. “TikTok still approving election disinformation ads in Ireland” - https://www.globalwitness.org/en/campaigns/digital-threats/tiktok-still-approving-election-disinformation-ads-ireland/