Former Soviet Union president Mikhail Gorbachev has called the democratic system in Russia “a complete mockery.”

In an interview with opposition newspaper Novaja Gazeta, Mr Gorbachev made unusually bitter comments about the country’s recent local elections. In those elections United Russia, Prime Minister Vladimir Putin’s party, won more than 80 percent of the votes.

Following the voting, which independent observers say was marred by fraud, three political parties walked out of the lower house of the Russian parliament in protest. Such an action, said Mr Gorbachev, shows that trust in the country’s political system has disappeared. He added that apathetic and mistrustful voters would soon stop voting altogether.

Photo of Mikhail Gorbachev from Wikimedia Commons