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On the news there are articles about Putin proposing the pact with the US. First, pacts don't guarantee anything. Secondly, I didn't hear that Russia felt a lot of meddling in their own elections. And third, wouldn't Russia like to continue to meddle in the US elections, why create the pact then? So, it's not clear what could led to such decision.

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I expect you are talking about the proposal mentioned here. The term interference might, depending on the viewpoint, cover things from hacking to black, grey, and white propaganda. The West is active in white propaganda, compare recent events in Belarus.

  • Russia denies meddling in Western elections, while at least part of the Western meddling in Russia is done by official and semi-official agencies. That's the Western policy of strengthening civic society. So Russia might want to "have their cake and eat it, too" by stopping the overt Western meddling.
  • Russia claims to feel threatened by significant meddling in their politics (instigating a Color Revolution, or for that matter the Nawalny case).
  • While some of these claims may be theatricals to score political points, significant American Russia-watchers believe that they do feel threatened by significant meddling (RAND study).
  • Pacts don't guarantee anything, especially with a President who tears up agreements if he wants to, but it would score political points if Russia could point to yet another pact broken by the West.
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  • The U.S. Needs to Face Up to Its Long History of Election Meddling "Yeltsin’s 'shock-therapy' economic reforms had reduced the government’s safety net, and produced a spike in unemployment and inflation. Between 1990 and 1994, the average life expectancy among Russian men had dropped by an astonishing six years. When Yeltsin began his reelection campaign in January 1996, his approval rating stood at 6 percent, lower than Stalin’s." Strengthening civic society?
    – Keith McClary
    Commented Sep 28, 2020 at 0:25
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    @KeithMcClary, I see certain overt influence attempts as legitimate. The result of the Helsinki process was a good thing. So is internatonal cooperation between political parties with similar platforms.
    – o.m.
    Commented Sep 28, 2020 at 5:42

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