Cheerful Spring wrote: » Navalny and his brother were convicted in December 2014 of money laundering and defrauding their business partner. Three years before the election. Under Russian law, a candidate cannot run for election if convicted by a Russian court.
Cheerful Spring wrote: » To claim he had no opposition is wrong (video below) Putin is just well liked by his countrymen and women who vote for him. I'm a fan of his foreign policy. Russia domestic policy is far from perfect but we seem to often ignore its rival ongoing issues with race and gay rights. America had 100 years of slavery, 50 years of apartheid and still they can't sort out race issues over there. The cheating by Hilary Clinton party so that Bernie Sanders would lose the election, that was deliberate fraud.
Jimmy Garlic wrote: » Long before the day the iraqi army were encouraged to run away and leave all their gear behind for Isis/daesh/whatever they are calling themselves today
Discodog wrote: » How about the race & homophobic issues in Russia ? The USA is no saint & Trump is an idiot but don't make out that Putin is any better
Elmer Blooker wrote: » Amazing how the terrorists "found" hundreds of Toyota trucks in the middle of the desert to load all of these weapons on to. That's not 'whataboutery' is it? Need to be careful!
Beasty wrote: » Damned if you ignore the overwhelming amount of evidence that's in one direction. But yes, there is the remotest chance that he's right and the rest of the World is wrong. There's also a chance I could reach the age of 200. Now that does sound preposterous and I'm not holding my breath on it....
Billy86 wrote: » Still waiting on the full details and transcripts of his entire court case, otherwise by the standards of many Putin supporters, Navalny's trial was a sham trial.
Cheerful Spring wrote: » Lets see how right you are.
pitifulgod wrote: » Russia's foreign policy also included annexing Crimea.. You'll no doubt claim that it wasn't anything to do with them.
ohnonotgmail wrote: » the correct term is "show trial". it is a russian specialty.
Beasty wrote: » I never said I was supportive of him, but simply that his exclusion from the election was indicative of the approach taken by Putin and his cronies. I have little interest in his own agenda, and care as much about his "potential" as a leader as I do for Putin. However Putin is the controller here. What he says goes. He will manipulate both with propaganda and physical force to ensure he retains power. There is nothing approaching democracy in Russia. Is the "Russian model" one that you would like to see operated in Ireland? I guess it would be one way of shutting down this thread (and probably the whole site) You can suck up to him as much as you want. You can plead his case for him as you wish. You can be his propaganda mouthpiece here. Don't think you're going to convince me mind.....
Cheerful Spring wrote: » 65 percent of the population identify themselves as Russian in Crimea. I not sure why you keeping saying it was Ukrainian land? It only returned to Ukraine after the Soviet Union collapsed.
Cheerful Spring wrote: » Putin called an election and the people voted for a return to Russian rule.
Cheerful Spring wrote: » Ukraine even recognised it special status by allowing thousands of Russian troops to be stationed at Sevastopol.
Cheerful Spring wrote: » Now that we have found out your wrong Putin had no opposition. Let us look at Putin main opposition opponent (Aleksei Navalny) who was stopped running in the Russian election. First off if you're convicted of a crime you can not run for election! Western media says stopping his rival from running for president is horrible and proves the election is unfair?
The Strasbourg-based ECHR said Navalny and his brother Oleg’s convictions for fraud and money laundering were based on an unforeseeable application of criminal law and that the proceedings were arbitrary and unfair.
weisses wrote: » Yes and so does the European Court of Human Rightshttps://www.reuters.com/article/us-russia-navalny-echr/russian-opposition-leaders-fraud-conviction-arbitrary-europes-top-rights-court-says-idUSKBN1CM1D7
Cheerful Spring wrote: » Russia recognised gay rights in 1993. What upsetting people in the West (Russia) has a law banning gay media in public. The law main purpose is to protect Russia children from viewing it.
ohnonotgmail wrote: » So it was ukranian land then, given that it was returned to the Ukraine? What right did putin have to call an election in a foreign country? that applied to the port only and not to the Crimea as a whole. They were allowed to station troops there. they did not rule there.
Cheerful Spring wrote: » Lets see how right you are. Russia election process had 77 candidates, not a small number of people Primaries were held in two rounds, the first round took place from 2 to 23 November, and the second round – from 24 to 30 November. 77 candidates were reduced to 9 on election day. Candidates with different parties agendas and ideas. Nine candidates Sergey Baburin Russian All-People's Union Pavel Grudinin Communist Party Vladimir Zhirinovsky Liberal Democratic Party Vladimir Putin Independent Ksenia Sobchak Civic Initiative Maxim Suraykin Communists of Russia Boris Titov Party of Growth Grigory Yavlinsky Yabloko Now that we have found out your wrong Putin had no opposition. Let us look at Putin main opposition opponent (Aleksei Navalny) who was stopped running in the Russian election. First off if you're convicted of a crime you can not run for election! Western media says stopping his rival from running for president is horrible and proves the election is unfair? What kind of man is Aleksei Navalny the west is so supportive of? Atlantic a US newspaper outlet from Boston wrote about him "Controversially, Navalny has participated in the annual Russian March, a parade uniting Russian nationalist groups of all stripes. He has also endorsed a nationalist-led campaign called Stop Feeding the Caucasus that has called for ending federal subsidies to the "corrupt" and "ineffective" governments of Chechnya and other North Caucasus republics Is this the kind of man you want controlling Russia nuclear arsenal?
Cheerful Spring wrote: » The people in Crimea decided to not be part of Ukraine after the coup. Go watch the news from that area back then. The Ukranian army was sending in its army to quell the uprising in Crimea. Russia moved into to stop the bloodshed.
Billy86 wrote: » Russia moved in long before that. Oh sorry, "Russians on holiday"... .
Cheerful Spring wrote: » The February 2014 revolution that ousted Ukrainian president Viktor Yanukovych sparked a political crisis in Crimea, which initially manifested as demonstrations against the new interim Ukrainian government, but rapidly escalated. In January 2014 the Sevastopol city council had already called for formation of "people's militia" units to "ensure firm defence" of the city from "extremism".[82][83] Crimean parliament members called for an extraordinary meeting on 21 February. Crimean Tatar Mejlis chairman Mustafa Dzhemilev said that he suspected that the meeting was arranged to call for Russian military intervention in Crimea.[84] In response to this, the Security Service of Ukraine (SBU) said that it would "use severe measures to prevent any action taken against diminishing the territorial integrity and sovereignty of Ukraine"
ohnonotgmail wrote: » so you accept that Crimea was Ukraine sovereign territory?
Cheerful Spring wrote: » I recognise the Crimean people right to decide who they are ruled by. Clearly, the majority of Crimeans want to be ruled by Russia. So no I don't recognise Crimea belonging to Ukraine.
What right did putin have to call an election in a foreign country?
ohnonotgmail wrote: » so Crimea was never Ukraine sovereign territory? you said as much yourself that it was. Now it is not. What changed was the invasion of russian troops.
