Delightful. This is how many Russians describe the postelection crisis in the United States. For 10 years, Russian elections have been a favorite target of the American media. Finally, Mother Russia is allowed to retaliate. The delicious irony of the moment is that two weeks earlier hardliners in the Russian Parliament dispatched a group of observers to the United States to check on the voting process there. Sick and tired of U.S. preaching and patronizing, Russian conservatives regarded that as a necessary but virtually hopeless propaganda counteroffensive. Ridiculed by the Russian press for their ambitious and seemingly silly enterprise, the conservatives did not suspect they would be present at the most problematic U.S. election in the last 100 years.

Confusion, if not chaos; blunders, if not outright fraud; national frustration, if not panic -- it's hard to believe this is happening in a U.S. presidential election. Radicals in Moscow have been given an unexpected present for the holiday most dear to their hearts: The date of the elections, Nov. 7, also happened to be the 83rd anniversary of the Great October Socialist Revolution in Russia.

The American mishap seems to have been specially tailored to fit the new Russian resentment toward the U.S. The presidential race was too tight for the arcane election system the U.S. has. If the winner had been determined by the popular vote, Vice President Al Gore would have been declared the new president on Tuesday night. Every newspaper and TV channel in the U.S. is asking whether major electoral reform is necessary. According to America Online, 67 percent of Americans are answering in the affirmative. The upheaval is a godsend for Russian hardliners: Haven't they been saying for years that the U.S. political system is not democratic after all? Many Americans now seem to agree.