Annals of Dmitri Medvedev, Pathological Liar
Filed under: Russia
One can't praise highly enough the Russia reporting that is being done by the International Herald Tribune, the Associated Press and the Washington Post. A few weeks ago, the Tribune carried an AP story which came right out and called Vladimir Putin's hand-picked, jury-rigged successor Dimitri Medvedev what he is: A mendacious liar out to recreate a neo-Soviet state. As the AP put it:
Dmitry Medvedev, Russia's president-elect, has preached freedom and the rule of law, and raised hopes for an end to government pressure on opposition leaders, rights advocates and businesses whose assets the Kremlin wants to control. But events of past weeks are adding to mounting suspicions that Medvedev's presidency may not be all that different from that of his steely-eyed predecessor -- Vladimir Putin.
The AP then goes on to provide a litany of evidence to prove their point.
Maxim Reznik.
Mikhail Kasyanov.
If you don't know these names, and what the Kremlin has been doing to persecute each of them in recent weeks, that's because so many other Western institutions of journalism have been falling down on the job reporting about them, even as the Kremlin unleashes a furious, and ludicrous, propaganda offensive trying to dupe us into believing Medvedev is benign, or even liberal. Andrei Illarionov asks: "We've seen in this last two months what the freedom [Medvedev] talks about really means. Are there any examples of real actions, not just words, that someone can use as proof that Medvedev is a liberal person, economically, politically or over civil rights?"
Can anyone answer his question in the affirmative, and give such examples?
NOTE: To comment on this post for publication, write to: kimzigfeld@gmail.com
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