This weekend offered a rogues’ gallery of phoney democracy in action. In Russia it was announced that Vladimir Putin had been swept back to the Kremlin, after a suspiciously smashing first-round victory in the presidential election. Iran staged its first parliamentary elections since the rigged presidential poll of 2009 and the violent suppression of the Green movement. And in China, the National People’s Congress – the country’s rubber-stamp parliament – assembled for its annual meeting. It is a coincidence – but perhaps no accident – that these are the three nations that have emerged as the closest protectors of Syria’s murderous one-party state.

The combined spectacle should give pause to those who like to believe that an irresistible wave of democracy is sweeping the globe. But events in Russia, Iran and China should also give a perverse form of encouragement to democrats. For even as they decry the flaws and hypocrisies of western democracies, the world’s autocrats feel compelled to ape their practices.

The Russians insist with a straight face they have done everything in their power to prevent ballot-rigging. The Iranians trumpet the size of the turnout in their poll. Even in China, where the authorities would not dare to risk a national election (even one with Iranian characteristics), the opening speeches to the National People’s Congress made frequent references to the “democratic” nature of Chinese politics.