MOSCOW — For weeks, coverage of the United States presidential race in Russia’s state-controlled media has been obscured by a layer of derision, cast by top commentators as a mud-slinging brawl or a “beauty contest” in which candidates vie for the loyalty of voting blocs, “some who love ample, fatty brunettes — and some preferring skinny anorexics.”

But for those who believed that Russia had nothing at stake, Monday’s televised debate served to focus the mind. By lunchtime on Tuesday, a top analyst had rendered his verdict in the newspaper Izvestiya: If Mitt Romney wins, Fyodor Lukyanov wrote, “it’s not that relations between Russia and the United States will be spoiled — they will halt. And they will not exist for a long time.”

As the race between Mr. Romney and President Obama rounds its last curve, the world is watching — and the coverage from other countries reveals as much about how they see themselves as it does about the American political process.

Japanese reporters have followed candidates on the campaign trail, scrutinizing their tactics as a blueprint for the vibrant two-party system Japan would like to build.