Comrade Snowden: Russia is a great defender of human rights

[uhnope]

These nations, including Russia, Venezuela, Bolivia, Nicaragua, and Ecuador have my gratitude and respect for being the first to stand against human rights violations carried out by the powerful rather than the powerless. ...

http://www.npr.org/blogs/thetwo-way/2013/07/12/201399605/snowden-to-meet-with-activists-issue-new-statement

[Cleita]

1. The Soviet Union is gone. There are no more comrades.

Time to update.

[uhnope]

3. tell Pussy Riot and KGB Lieutenant Colonel Putin

[Cleita]

5. During the Stalin era, there would have been no attempt at Pussy Riot.

Trust me.

[Chiennoir54]

2. You're joking, right? Russia as a defender of human rights? Since when? Snow den may be up against

The brick wall of the American national security state, and I sympathize with his desperate status, but even he must realize the unbelievable irony of requesting asylum from the likes of Putin.

[Whisp]

4. He's sounding more unhinged as time goes by.

There is something really, really wrong about this whole story. Smells to high heaven.

[flamingdem]

19. Posted this elsewhere but relevant to your point, he's getting more unhinged

Totally over his head and relying on a man in a closet in the Ecuadoran Embassy.

(though this reporter mentions that a Russian lawyer might help)


I was just reading a reporters take on Snowden

She was at the conference, said he was shivering, joked that he joked that he hasn't been able to sleep due to the plane announcements and he was the only one who laughed (cue the tuba).

Then, that Wikileaks is the only one he can count on now.

A Russian human rights group showed up but they won't help him, she says they're
just about getting funding from the US (probably usaid).

Sounds like rough sledding for Mr. Snowden.

[nadinbrzezinski]

6. The huac most be in session

And the calendar must read 1955 or so.

[Cleita]

7. No kidding. n/t

[flamingdem]

8. Snowball kissing Putin ass to save his own

Tres obvious.

"I did not partner with any foreign government to guarantee my safety." -Ed Snowden, in MOSCOW

Oh surrrre

[kestrel91316]

9. Are you aware that the Soviet Union died over 20 years ago, and along with it,

communism in Europe?

Of course not. Why do I even bother asking?

They don't teach that at Liberty University. You should demand a tuition refund.

Oh, and enjoy your stay.

[FSogol]

10. Careful Snowden, they only have dial-up modems in Irkutsk!

[UTUSN]

17. *this* is why I'm kicking this thread!1 nt

[Cali_Democrat]

11. Russia is the same country that will arrest gay tourists

Defender of human rights?

Laughable.

Snowden is a clown.

[Cleita]

13. We used to arrest gays too and not that long ago. n/t

[sigmasix]

12. but snowden is a hero, right?

Now I have heard and seen it all; snowden's fans are contorting themselves into all sorts of shapes to explain this away. My favorite is the guy that claimed Russia is a human rights defender.
Aren't these the same people that claim supporters of President Obama are guilty of moral flip-flopping for tolerating lies?
Next up; Snowden will be eating living babies to defend himself from accusations of treason. Of course his followers already know babies are evil, so snowden is still their hero.

[Cleita]

14. In this incidence Russia is comporting itself very well. Until today, I really thought

Snowden was in a cell in the Kremlin being "interrogated" for the passwords on his laptops. It turns out none of that happened and the Russians have been treating him like a human being. I don't think he would get the same treatment here if our CIA gets their hands on him.

[davidn3600]

16. Very good point. If he came back here, America would make an example out of him

The intelligence community needs to punish him severely in order to deter future leakers.

[Scurrilous]

15. And when all else fails...

"It's not about Snowden!!1!"

[struggle4progress]

18. Laws of Attrition: Crackdown on Russia’s Civil Society after Putin’s Return to the Presidency

APRIL 24, 2013

In the year since Vladimir Putin’s return to the presidency in May 2012, the Russian government has unleashed a crackdown on civil society unprecedented in the country’s post-Soviet history. The authorities have introduced a series of restrictive laws, harassed, intimidated, and in several cases imprisoned political activists, interfered in the work of nongovernmental organizations (NGOs), and sought to cast government critics as clandestine enemies, thereby threatening the viability of Russia’s civil society ...

... the “foreign agents” law ..., a new law regulating NGOs, requires, among other things, organizations that receive foreign funding and supposedly engage in “political activities” to register as “foreign agents.” ... A third law, the treason law, expands the legal definition of treason in ways that could criminalize involvement in international human rights advocacy ...

In addition, libel, decriminalized at the end of Dmitry Medvedev’s presidency, was recriminalized seven months later, and Internet content has been subjected to new legal restrictions. A new assembly law imposes limits on public demonstrations and imposes serious, drastic fines on those who violate the law.

The new laws, most of them sponsored by the ruling United Russia party, were adopted at breakneck speed: the assembly law, for example, entered into force just 18 days after the lower house of parliament, the State Duma, began debating it ...

http://www.hrw.org/node/115058/section/2

[noamnety]

20. OMG HE'S A COMMIE!!!111!!!