Sorry, I think the point I was trying to make was that most governments try to openly influence politics in other countries rather than protecting free elections.

I totally agree that vote rigging would be particularly egregious. However, I'm not sure that backing a regime with money / weapons / training, etc. that then goes ahead and rigs the vote is that much better.

I think it's more like one scenario is stealing money and the other is investing in a gang that steals money.

I just find it interesting that we openly try to pick political winners and losers in other countries.

Not picking winners is also a decision that impacts other countries. It's like a default option in a UI -- there are no neutral options.

Sure, but I guess by that same logic not rigging a foreign election would impact a country too.

Yeah, it's sort of like conflating asking for money with stealing... they may result in the same outcome, but result from extremely different actions.