At a private event in Virginia, senior Republican senator Mitt Romney delivered a stark warning about the threat to US democracy in light of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. 

“We are really the only significant experiment in democracy, and preserving liberal democracy is an extraordinary challenge,” the Utah senator and former Massachusetts governor and Republican presidential nominee said, according to attendees at the event in McLean, Virginia, who spoke to CBS News. 

The event was held to raise funds for Liz Cheney, the Wyoming Republican whose opposition to Donald Trump over his attempt to overturn his election defeat and the January 6 riot has attracted a far-right challenger backed by the former president and the House Republican leader, Kevin McCarthy, in her primary this year. 

Romney, CBS reported, cited the Russian invasion of Ukraine and said the Russian president, Vladimir Putin, was following an authoritarian playbook “rehearsed time and time again, over the many thousands of years of world history”.

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