As I said, no one is obliged to allow an enemy to speak. But they should at least be honest about the authoritarianism rather than pretending to be a free society. No "society" has common values. All societies have a ruling ideology that enforces the ideology from the top down. The ideology might change but dissenters are treated the same around the world.
Christ, the USSR led the field in characterising their internal critics as being either foreign agents or mentally ill. Now it is the status quo.
Has this been shared here already?
CNN ~ ‘Enemy of humankind’: Ex-Russian oligarch speaks out about Putin
CNN's Nina dos Santos speaks with Mikhail Khodorkovsky, a former Russian oil tycoon and Kremlin critic who says Russian President Vladimir Putin is "the enemy of humankind."
As mentioned in comments, putting his life on the line by speaking out?
"he needs to be stopped now".
All the Kremlin propaganda in the world won't cover the fact that they are being systematically cut off. Most are going to see the differences in their daily lives, and certainly with the economy and their savings. When things are really bad maybe they'll see the differences between themselves and their dear leaders who have 100 million dollar yachts and 1 billion dollar holiday houses on public salaries. Maybe then it will start to sink or, or maybe it won't. We'll see.
Don't forget that Russia has its own social and messaging apps too which are very popular.
I get that. And freedom of speech is pushed to limits by some and exploited by people with sinister motives.
What I don't understand is the security aspect of it. Even given that some of the most dangerous people will say little or nothing, there is a security benefit to a free and open society -- you can identify threats and networks of contacts. That's harder to do when it's all pushed underground, no?
If you're aged 14-40 in Russia you're not the same as someone aged 14-40 in Ireland or the West in general. If all those services were cut in Ireland that age group would have a complete meltdown and there would be no local alternatives like there are in Russia. In the major urban centres you'd have more equivalence alright, but beyond that it's a different mindset. When I read recent Russian polls that claimed Czar Vlad has gained support it wouldn't -for a nice change with Russian polls- surprise me one little bit.
The Russians I've known and know(including talking with one this very week) they support Putin to a large extent, some to quite an incredible extent to the Western mind. At worst they'll say he over reached, but he has a longterm plan, or at best(for him) Ukraine is full of nazis and we're believing propaganda, to the same degree we reckon they are. read this thread and see the reaction of many to anyone who strays even slightly from 'our' narative. Well imagine that in reverse from the Russian side. They are just as certain of their position. The sanctions have if anything increased that feeling.
Plus the Russian psyche has a strong siege mentality and the vast majority over 40, even 30 remember the bad old days and they survived that. By the sad virtue of the fact that Russia is so underdeveloped and Russians so poor compared to French, German, or Irish people they're overall much more resilient too. Outside of the wealthy and urban centres the average Russian is far more like people of our grandparents and greatgrandparents generation than ours. Frugal and mend and make do and expectations are low. The percentage of Russians that have even been in an IKEA and bought stuff from it is pretty small. IMHO the sanctions will take a fair bit of time to bite for most Russians. They're mostly hitting the middle class urbanites and party wealthy.
Many of his claims can already be demonstrated as being false. That should be a good indicator that he shouldn't be listened to if you want reliable information.
That's all due to the rule about non-biased reporting being eliminated. Nothing has been the same since then, though I find news on the main networks passable.
Ironically yes, ordinary Russians don't give a crap about sanctions.
Since poor Vlad's reputation is taking a bit of a beating....I thought I would share this quirky story. It's the "Hitler loved dogs" kind of thing where a person who you think of as wholly evil...does something nice.
TL;DR - Putin loved his primary school teacher. She emigrated to Israel. Years later after becoming PM, he goes on an official visit to Israel. Seeing 'her boy' was coming, she contacts him through the embassy and he ends up buying her a flat in Tel-Aviv.
The only person who caused the invasion of Ukraine is Vladimir Putin.
Kooks like that are all that can be found at the moment. Next we'll be hearing from Steve Bannon's podcast and a translated clip from North Korean News Lady.
The only thing I'll promise you is that I'll be picking up on any time you try to pawn off an armed gang as protestors.
Yes the domestic Russian equivalent is called the 'Government'
No. What he says doesn't match all the actual evidence. Like I said earlier, this guy's probably brainwashed by RT or some Tucker Carlson type.
The free exchange of ideas has never been absolute in the West. It's never absolute in any society, because any society is held together in part by common values and the antithesis of those values are taboos, which are out of bounds and people who espouse these taboos face certain penalties. It may only be in Western society that we just have a broader spectrum of what can be discussed than other places. And it has increasingly been the problem in Western society that people hide behind the banner of free speech to industriously sow confusion and hatred. There comes a point where you have to say, 'stop'. Nobody sits around and goes, "Y'know, it's good that the Allies won WW2, but wouldn't it have been great if they let Nazi Germany broadcast in their home countries, just to get a balanced perspective?"
The lack of a BigMac and a can of Coke (coupled with no football) is what will get the Russians really annoyed!
Of course you don't. Do me a favour and just shout at a cloud next time.
I don’t think people in North Korea know any different.
Russians do.
** Coming to the Bord Gais Na Mona Energy Theatre this spring
LOL. You think lack of easy access to "major porn outlets" is going to be a decisive factor in political outcomes? I can see why that list of sanctions might seem soul destroying to the cosmopolitan classes but none of it lacks substitutes. Even to the extent it is beneficial at all.
That man's either an idiot or a liar. Each of those points can be compared to reality and found not to agree with it. Those points are also the same points made by Putin and his lackeys, coincidentally. He's probably been watching too much RT or Tucker Carlson, RT's favourite useful idiot.
Yep, certain chauvinistic, anti-traveller, single, Trump-supporting, spineless individuals lap that nonsense up.
I know it's been called out already that the security threat is a red herring, but i'll repeat it. Ukraine is not a Nato buffer, it's a democracy buffer. The threat to Putin is the advance of the free world. Ukraine's fate was sealed when it overthrew the puppet Government in 2014.
I have no idea what the above is even meant to mean. I'll leave you to it, I've made my point and made it clearly.
All EU ports likely to be closed to Russian shipping fairly soon.
Russian commodities shipped under other flag carriers, that's tbd.
Certainly there is no argument that will be heard in the west. Our governments are working hard to ensure that. But we aren't disturbed by that, whereas we expect our Russian colleagues will be disturbed by western media being repressed in Russia?
There is a level of hubris there.
Oh I hear you, though I'm of the position that America has gone down the U bend over the last couple of decades into an internally fractured state run by spin doctors and billionaires buggering their own people and Russia is an autocratic craphole living in the early 20th century buggering their own people. If America shuts down Russian media, or Russia shuts down American, I'd neither be surprised nor particularly care TBH. But I think Europe is and should be better than that.
However, his points were torn apart during later bulletins. Our Col. Has a history of this. Only time will tell.
Name one thing from that list the North Koreans had before sanctions took them away.
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