October 2, 2012

Obama and Putin

By Kim Zigfeld
The scope and intensity of the neo-Soviet crackdown now underway in Vladimir Putin's Russia is truly breathtaking to behold, even for those of us who saw it coming.  But even more terrifying is the craven, dishonorable response to that crackdown by the President of the United States. Let's start in the Duma, Russia's answer to the U.S. House of Representatives.  Within the last two weeks, two of the leading figures opposing the Putin regime in the legislature have been politically liquidated.  First, deputy Gennady Gudkov was actually thrown out of the body; then his colleague Ilya Ponomarev was banned from speaking in it.  Both are members of the "Just Russia" party, the only group in the legislature willing to tweak Putin from time to time.  Gudkov was accused of criminal activity without even having been arrested, much less convicted, and Ponomarev was accused of calling Putin's party United Russia a "party of swindlers and thieves" from the Duma floor. For...(Read Full Article)