John Chuckman
COMMENT TO AN ARTICLE IN THE INDEPENDENT
“Putin to be inaugurated for fourth term as Russian president with lavish ceremony in former tsars' throne room”
What rubbish propaganda this article is.
My God, the American President is inaugurated with the most lavish set of ceremonies and entertainments on earth.
Russia keeps and uses its historical buildings and furniture for many occasions. It is ridiculous to associate that with the suggestion of Putin's being a Czar.
As far as your "hundreds of demonstrators arrested," please keep in mind that American police actually kill more than 1, 100 citizens on the streets each year, most of them unarmed.
Keep in mind, too, that America maintains the largest prison population of earth, by far exceeding that of any other country. And America has some of the most brutal prisons on the planet, the so-called Super-Max prisons, which are literally a national disgrace.
America has about one percent of its entire population in prisons and jails. Another full two percent of its population is on probation or parole. That makes literally millions of citizens.
Not only that, but in many parts of the US, convicted felons lose the right to vote. You effectively stop being a citizen. It is an extremely harsh place.
And how about Israel's platoons of snipers almost daily shooting and killing unarmed Gaza protesters? Imagine, posting snipers, some of whom use dum-dum bullets, to confront unarmed protesters?
Israel also keeps something like 7,000 Palestinians in prison without any legal charges or trial. They are subjected to stress and torture, too, as we well know.
This is a country where a young girl, Ahed Tamimi, 17 years old, is sent to prison for merely slapping the face of an insulting and brutal Israeli soldier.
And this is country where a government official recently said in public that she should at least have been shot in the kneecap.
And it is only recently revealed in a published book that Israel has conducted at least 2,700 assassinations.
Putin's Russia looks like Nirvana by comparison.
