Three visitors from Russia are in Iowa City for a ten-day visit to learn how a democracy is run. Tom Baldwin, the executive director of the Council for International Visitors to Iowa Cities, says the idea is to introduce them to some of the “nitty-gritty ways a democratic society functions.”Although it’s been several years since the Soviet Union broke up, Baldwin says the visitors show a strong desire to learn more about democracy. The Communists seized power in Russia in 1919, so there are very few Russians who have a working knowledge of any other government system. The Russians will be visiting Iowa through June 23rd.
