I shall take the liberty of saying that I am amazed by such statements, because we have actually known for a long time that these were not exactly democratic regimes and that, instead, they were authoritarian or very authoritarian regimes which kept their peoples under their thumb.
Permettetemi di esprimervi il mio stupore dinanzi a tali affermazioni, in quanto sapevamo da tempo che questi non erano regimi propriamente democratici e che, anzi, erano autoritari o molto autoritari e opprimevano i loro popoli.