Russian Tyranny Rising

Dictator-kleptocrat for life Putin 

lying to Russian journalists a couple of weeks ago

The last remnants of democracy in Russia are being swept away as Putin crushes what is left of democracy and freedom in Russia. The Washington Post writes:

MOSCOW — As the Kremlin awaits what it fears will be a hostile Biden presidency, President Vladimir Putin is shifting course on two fronts — accelerating a drive to full-blown authoritarian control at home and escalating his defiant rhetoric against the West.

Domestically, a grudging tolerance for opposition and protest has been all but abandoned, while internationally, the Kremlin is taking particularly sharp aim at the United States ahead of the change of administration next month.

Russian-U.S. relations are going “from bad to worse,” Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov said Wednesday, adding that Russia doesn’t expect “anything good” from President-elect Joe Biden and suggesting it adopt a policy of “total deterrence” toward Washington, with minimal dialogue.

In addition to signs that Biden will pursue a tough line with Moscow, Putin has seen his popularity slowly decline even as parliamentary elections loom in 2021. The move to double down against both the West and opponents at home reflects a perception of them as enemies working hand in hand to undermine Russia.

In this view, critical journalists and bloggers are potential terrorists, extremists or spies, and civic activists and nongovernment organizations may be labeled foreign agents. The Russian heroes Putin extols are spies who hack into U.S. agencies and domestic intelligence agents whose main role, like that of Stalin’s secret police, is the repression of dissent.

A raft of new, repressive laws sees Russia moving from partial to all-out authoritarianism, said Andrei Kolesnikov, a political analyst at the Moscow Carnegie Center.

“There is an open war with civil society,” he said, noting the Kremlin’s concern that Putin — who could legally stay in stay in power until 2036 — may someday face protests like those in Belarus, where the August presidential election was condemned as rigged by the opposition and Western nations.  

A blizzard of recent legislation in the State Duma has made it harder to protest, easier to target opposition figures and activists and has given authorities broad scope to brand individuals as “foreign agents,” with five-year jail penalties for failure to meet reporting requirements. The government is also moving to curb foreign Internet sites such as Twitter, Facebook, and YouTube.  

Putin maintains his grip by allowing loyalists in the military, intelligence, bureaucracy and law enforcement to guzzle Russia’s resources, Inozemtsev said. “This is a situation where this elite gang owns the country like private property and actually uses it for its enrichment.”

The tyrant-kleptocrat Putin is now fully showing his vicious dark heart. All the lies and hypocrisy his rhetoric and politics has been based on for years are as clear as an be. His friends and enablers must be overjoyed -- Utopia at last!! The tyrant and state has even moved to protect itself forever, giving Putin and his key enablers a pre-emptive pardon from everything for life in new laws. For example, Putin now has immunity from prosecution for life from all acts. He really can go out in the street and shoot widows, orphans and his relatives with impunity. America's tyrant-kleptocrat president is no doubt jealous of such wonderful possibilities.

On top of that, new laws classify as state secret all financial and personal information of millions of members of Russian intelligence bodies, security agencies, the judiciary, law-enforcement and regulatory agencies, the Russian military, and their relatives. Even crazy pedophile uncle Igor and sadist aunt Natasha are safe to do their things in peace and freedom.

Just think if all of that applied to Melania, Ivanka, Jared, Eric, Don Jr., the president and all the GOP crooks. Yuck, to say the least.

One can only feel sorry about the hopeless misery, kleptocracy and brutality that most or nearly all average Russians will live their lives under. If he had his way, that would be Putin's plan for America and Americans.