Russian Protest Leader Put Under House Arrest

Musicians, political opponents or anyone who speaks against Putin can end up in Siberia.

It has worked wonders for the Kremlin at quieting dissent.

Mr. Litvinenko was in London when that happened.

I am still on DU right?

Putin is trying to avoid a return to the corrupt, elite, control of the wealthy and politically powerful that, unfortunately, the Soviet Union became. Putin believes in the redistribution of wealth, he believes in the eventual stateless and classless society. The problem here is that the Left Front wants immediate change back to true communism and that cannot happen when they are only approx 14 years removed from the end of the corruption of the ideal. The Left Front is making the path more difficult. Basically, given reality, the Left Front is to progressivism what the Tea Party is to fundamentalist right in American.

I have no problem with this at all. As history has shown, what they really need is a strong leader that shares the ideals and recognizes the proper timeframe that such a great and dramatic fundamental transformation requires.

Putin's not stupid. All these little unknowns springing up with no track record and no visible means of support trying to stir up the masses aren't fooling anyone. When USAID had to hastily shut down its offices and leave, we clearly stated we weren't abandoning our efforts and would transition them somehow.

In 2011 USAID alone spent over $127.6 million in Russia funding NGOs to "“promoting democracy and human rights" there. Unfortunately history pains a terrible track record of just how much "democracy and human rights" were really delivered. How about we stop trying to fool everyone, especially our own citizens who have to pay for this, and start using those billions at home?

The rest of the world isn't going to subsidize our life style and roll over when we steal their resources to do that. Our methods are too well-known now (except in our own country it seems).




Anons hacked USRF's accounts and posted their correspondence with their *revolutionary* contacts online and the US was left red-faced. They admitted the correspondence was genuine but emphatically denied they were up to anything nefarious. Unfortunately the correspondence spoke for itself. It's a good thing he wasn't a US citizen in 2014 with a secret panel deciding he was a traitor working for outside interests because then he'd be eligible for death by drone. Funneling funds to him through our friends in Georgia isn't fooling anyone either. We've been busted too many times funneling money and arms through friendly third parties.

Don't we have enough problems at home without wasting billions trying to re-arrange the world to our satisfaction? How about some NGOs promoting democracy and human rights right here in the US?

How about we stop in CIA teams pretending to be *scientists studying the effects of high-altitude" to destabilize Evo Morales? How about we stop funding free-trade/privatization-happy coup plotters against Rafael Correa?

And how about we start apologizing for the millions, the many millions of people who lost their lives these last few decades because we're more concerned about rearranging the world than taking care of our own people? Apologies would go some ways towards indicating a change of heart.

Give it up. Start taking care of our own citizens instead of spending all this money abroad so the 1% can steal more money from the world's 99%.