Thomas Riggins
"Putin's a killer."
"You think our country's so innocent?"
So, let's get real. Since the collapse of the USSR and under Yeltsin, Medvedev and Putin about 165 journalists have been murdered and 47 to 50 political opponents of the Russian government. None of these murders have ever been proven to have been ordered by any of the three Russian presidents, nevertheless the Russian government is far from exemplifying the ideal of a state completely subject to the rule of law and Russian security forces have been known to have employed assassination and murder as tools of statecraft from the Middle Ages up to the present. Putin, unlike Obama, is not known to have a list of enemies that he goes over every week and then orders killed by drones. Not counting Chechnya (unreliable figures) if we just add up Russian political and journalist killings plus civilians killed in Syria by the Russian military (under Putin's control) [about 2686 including 368 children have been killed -- up to 2015) the Russians have murdered about 2895 citizens (their own and others). In this regard Putin is a killer.
"Putin's a killer."
"You think our country's so innocent?"
So, let's get real. Since the collapse of the USSR and under Yeltsin, Medvedev and Putin about 165 journalists have been murdered and 47 to 50 political opponents of the Russian government. None of these murders have ever been proven to have been ordered by any of the three Russian presidents, nevertheless the Russian government is far from exemplifying the ideal of a state completely subject to the rule of law and Russian security forces have been known to have employed assassination and murder as tools of statecraft from the Middle Ages up to the present. Putin, unlike Obama, is not known to have a list of enemies that he goes over every week and then orders killed by drones. Not counting Chechnya (unreliable figures) if we just add up Russian political and journalist killings plus civilians killed in Syria by the Russian military (under Putin's control) [about 2686 including 368 children have been killed -- up to 2015) the Russians have murdered about 2895 citizens (their own and others). In this regard Putin is a killer.
Over the same time period the United States under Bush and Obama has assassinated many "enemies of the state", including children, using drones and its security forces and military alone. In the Middle East not counting Iraq or Syria the US has killed 13,500 civilians including 2,908 children (mostly in Afghanistan and Pakistan). In this regard both Bush and Obama are killers. All these figures have been gleaned from news sources on the internet and they are constantly being changed and modified!
Killer Scorecord: Team Putin: 2895 Team Bush/Obama: 13,500
Killer Scorecord: Team Putin: 2895 Team Bush/Obama: 13,500
Conclusion: NO our country is not so innocent. The "Putin killer" meme is simply hypocritical US right-wing propaganda whether mouthed from Republicans or Democrats and spread by either deliberate lies or ignorant know nothings -- if it is meant to imply there is some sort of special "evil" about Putin that is not found in US politicians OR there is some sort of moral equivalency between the US and Russia: the US is much worse morally than Russia with respect to the wholesale killing of children and innocent civilians. But none of these leaders can be particularly proud of what their military does nor how they treat innocent civilian populations. Trump will be no different as his failed exercise in Yemen indicates.
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