Moscow, Beijing and Tehran criticise US after Capitol violence

Iranian president Hassan Rouhani says western democracy is brittle and weak

In much of the world, the scenes that played out in Washington on Wednesday prompted shock, horror and anguish.

But in Moscow, Beijing and other capitals where autocratic governments have been subjected to frequent US criticism, there was a good dose of schadenfreude at the chaotic footage of protesters overrunning Congress. The events were also held up by many authoritarian governments as proof of a long-held insistence that the US is in no place to give other nations lectures on democracy.