Language of Democracy

From a fascinating interview conducted by Glenn Greenwald with Professor Charles King from Georgetown University's School of Foreign Service:

CK: Well, the Russians are certainly worried about the idea of being strategically encircled by the West, particularly by the United States. They see the US focus on democracy as being no more than an extremely cynical attempt to cloak basic US strategic interests in something other than what it is. That is to use the language of democracy to protect governments or countries that are pro-US in their foreign policy orientation. The Russians will often point out that the US doesn't seem to have any problem with autocracies that are extremely pro-US, and it does occasionally seem to have problems with democracies who aren't terribly pro-US in their foreign policy orientations.