I watched an Australian ABC “documentary” about Putin and the Russia he has created since coming to power in 2000. All the while I was watching it, I couldn’t help thinking, “What if you removed Putin and substituted Trudeau, Dan Andrews, or even sleepy Joe Biden?”
Here are some of the horrific accusations that this ABC hit piece leveled at Putin (and I have no reason to doubt any of them):
Protests were outlawed
Yes, since coming to power, President (and briefly Prime Minister) Vlad Putin has introduced numerous laws to gradually curtail the right to freedom of speech and freedom of assembly.
That’s just shocking. How on earth can Putin claim Russia is democracy when the public can’t assemble and protest? It’s not like this would happen in Australia?
Nor in Trudeau’s Canada where declaring an emergency has somehow still maintained 16% support for the dictator.
People arrested for social media posts
Another shocker. Imagine a country where citizens are arrested for posting on Facebook, Instagram, Tiktok, and SnapChat.
I don’t know what worries me more: that people get arrested for Facebook posts, or that police consider monitoring social media a worthwhile use of taxpayers’ funds.
Either way, in Putin’s Russia police monitor social media and most definitely arrest dissenters. I wouldn’t be surprised if the uncaring, cold hearted regime even arrested pregnant women. Bastards!
People jailed for weeks or months on trumped up charges
The ABC brought up an example of a protester allegedly striking a police officer at a protest and being sent to jail for weeks in Putin’s Russia. Shocking.
To be fair, I wouldn’t want to spend any time in a Russian jail. They do torture prisoners there, much like in Cuba — Guantanamo Bay.
But nor would I want to spend weeks in solitary in a Melbourne jail for doing nothing. But that doesn’t happen in a democracy does it?
Of course, 22 days in jail doesn’t compare with the more serious crime committed by a pastor of, you know, preaching. After all, this is Dan’s Demokratik Viktoria.
Meanwhile in Kanada, where science has determined that Covid won’t spread in Churches as long as they are limited to 15% capacity (irrespective of ceiling height):
Happily, Victoria will soon no longer need trumped up charges. The new Minority Report Act (officially, the Terrorism (Community Protection) Amendment Bill 2021) allows the state to arrest criminals before they even consider committing crimes. Why trump up a charge when you can forecast it?
Private citizens have their property confiscated
Yup. In Putin’s Russia, demonstrators and political opponents have their property stolen by the state or by the police. As a prevention of such kind of situation view site to know more about property coupled with safety. This is a combination of out and out corruption, political skullduggery, and plain on thuggery which is rampant in Putin’s Russia, we are told.
How much is Putin’s fault? Well, he’s been there for 22 years, so probably a fair chunk of it can be laid at his door.
Meanwhile in the US, which is a democracy, corruption isn’t the fault of the Republican Party, nor the Democratic Party, despite them being in power continuously since 1852.
Police don’t systematically steal cash from people they pull over on the road. That would be theft. Instead, they confiscate it. That’s called due process. It’s also called civil asset forfeiture. John Oliver may not be funny, but he’s good at explaining stuff.
One could mention Canadian truckers here as well of course. You know — the ones who had their trucks confiscated by the government for protesting. Let’s not go into the millions seized by the banks at the behest of dictator Trudeau after declaring martial law.
Opposition politicians arrested, intimidated or killed
Yes, we all know of the many Russian politicians who have been killed. Many of these were Putin’s political opponents and were very likely killed at his behest — or on orders of one of his henchmen.
There’s no proof mind you. They could just have easily been murdered by a business rival (business and politics seem to be pretty similar in Russia) or jealous lover. But let’s assume they were killed on Putin’s orders, because Putin’s a bad person and we hate bad persons.
Not like Bill Clinton and the 50+ associates, acquaintances, and collaterals he had killed. Hang on a sec. There’s no proof. So that one’s a conspiracy theory. Unlike the Putin one because… just trust me ok.
At least it doesn’t happen in Australia. People like Monica Smit (head of a political opposition party) don’t really count right? I mean, it’s one of those single issue parties (“Reignite Democracy” — democracy has been out of fashion since the sixties).
People no longer trust the mainstream media
Yes, for some reason, people seem to think that TASS and RT may be a bit pro-government biased. Especially the younger generation who get their news in sound bites from twitter, TikTok, and Instagram.
I can’t blame them. Watching Australia’s mainstream media is so painful I can barely sit through an entire news segment. International news is great though because it only takes up about five minutes.
Back on topic, and to be fair, Australians do tend to trust mainstream media.
For example, during the main protests in Melbourne when the mainstream media could no longer ignore them, channel seven regularly got 50-100k views on YouTube, while ABC clocked up 250k.
Meanwhile, Canadian news agency Rebel News (with just one reporter in the country) was clocking up 500k+ views on YouTube, and out of work wedding videographer “Real Ruckshan” was clocking up 400k views on his Facebook page. This REALLY riled the ABC, who report real news, have a really big budget, but just can’t seem to get the eyeballs.
Keep in mind, this is in a country where most people still trust the mainstream media, and few people question why the state government spends hundreds of millions of dollars on commercial TV ads promoting such high priority stuff as “wear sunscreen” and “install a free power meter.” Tax payers want to pay for these inane ads on TV rather that watch a movie or show without ads. It’s not to influence the TV stations of course.
It’s not like the government goes after independent media either. I mean, issuing an FPO “firearm protection order” on Aussie Cossack seems pretty fair. He’s Russian and might have invaded Ukraine if Putin hadn’t done it first. For those who don’t know, an FPO gives the police to search you, your vehicle, your home, and anyone with you at any time without a warrant. It’s one of those useful tools the government has for circumventing democracy.
It’s similar to the thought crime bill that Dan introduced in Victoria.
Putin and family have taken millions in ill-gotten gains
Strangely, the ABC got this one wrong by several orders of magnitude. Most estimates put this at billions. There’s no proof of course, but it’s hard to imagine it NOT being true.
To be fair, it looks like it would be a lot cheaper buying off Joe Biden than buying off Putin. A prudent man, however, would also consider the proximity of troops, tanks, and artillery before making a final decision.
Such a shame. Until a recent Russian military action, the Bidens were STILL raking in millions of dollars from Ukraine in return for propping up that corrupt regime. Hang one. Is this why the Biden administration had difficulty from brokering a deal? Conspiracy theory you say? Let’s see what the official Senate Committee had to say in its final report:
The records acquired by the Committees also show that Hunter Biden and his family
US Senate Committee on Homeland Security and Government Affairs HSGAC Finance Report Conclusion p87
were involved in a vast financial network that connected them to foreign nationals and foreign governments across the globe. Hunter Biden and Devon Archer, in particular, formed significant and consistent financial relationships with the corrupt oligarch Mykola Zlochevsky during their time working for Burisma, and their firms made millions of dollars from that association while Joe Biden was vice president and the public face of the Obama administration’s Ukraine policy.
The report goes on to detail how Hunter, James, and Sarah Biden made tens of millions in profit from their associations with Chinese interests connected to the PLA (People’s Liberation Army) and CCP (Chinese Communist Party). Interesting reading.
Somehow, this had nothing to do with Joe Biden. It still doesn’t. Officially.
Of course, Justin Trudeau is squeaky clean as well. His family, however, seem to have accidentally profited from WE charity. As you can expect, Trudeau is even cheaper than Biden.
But let’s get back to the ABC hit piece.
In conclusion
Of course Putin is a thug. Nothing proven in a court of law, but as Putin controls the courts this may not be a surprise.
However, throwing all these stones from our glass house at the top of our ivory tower planted firmly on our mound of moral superiority as democratic do-gooders does seem to be a bit harder to swallow these days, metaphorically speaking.
Watching Victorian news, it would seem that Queensland is under water, Ukraine is under Russia, the climate is under siege, Covid has been swept under the rug, and Melbourne is the place to be. Some may be true.
Most of the claims and accusations leveled by the ABC at Putin could also be aimed at politicians leading Canada, the US, and Victoria. But at least we didn’t invade Ukraine.
Peter.
