I know a rigged election. The US presidential election isn't one.

FOR the past few weeks, the Republican nominee for president, Donald Trump, has been talking a lot about how the Nov 8 election is rigged against him. In fact, he sounds convinced that the entire campaign season is rigged in favour of his Democratic opponent, Hillary Clinton. These are serious charges, or they would be if Mr Trump had any idea what he was talking about.

Nobody in the US political establishment is happy about Mr Trump's wild-eyed accusations of voter fraud and media conspiracies because they understand that it undermines their own credibility as leaders in a democracy. This is exactly why my country's leader, Vladimir Putin, is so delighted by Mr Trump's charges.

In power for 16 years now, Mr Putin and his global propaganda machine aggressively promote the idea that democracy is a chaotic mess that only the hero Putin can save Russia from falling into. Social media is flooded by Kremlin-funded trolls ranting about the illegitimacy of the US election process and warning of the potential for violence. To have a major party nominee in the United States repeating this propaganda is beyond Mr Putin's wildest dreams. Mr Trump even echoes Mr Putin's authoritarian rationales, presenting himself as the only one who can rescue America.