In Hungary, for example, which is an EU country and democracy (i.e. there are elections), investigative journalists have been targeted with Pegasus by the government.
To compare US elections to Russian or Syrian elections is both incredibly naive and dangerous. In one country, you have a leading political opponent having stolen classified docs treated with kid gloves; in the other, you have political opponents poisoned and literally blown out of the sky.
Sounds like you don't like the outcome and dismiss the possibility that it's the result of the system. From what I understand Orban has a decent approval rating in his country. For Putin it's hard to say since Russia is so foreign and separated, just like China - the only source of info is random crap by your preferred biased media source.
But for Hungary - I've been there multiple times in the last few years, know a few people, and I have no trouble believing he won democratic elections.
