Vladimir Putin Accuses U.S. Government of Assassinating Ashli Babbitt JOHN HAYWARD 16 June 2021
Putin referenced Babbitt’s death, without using her name, when NBC’s Keir Simmons asked if he ordered the assassination of Russian dissident Alexei Navalny. Navalny was nearly killed with a nerve agent while flying from Siberia to Moscow in August 2020, recovered after treatment in Germany, and was jailed upon returning to Russia in January 2021. Agents of Russia’s FSB security service have been implicated in the attempt on Navalny’s life.
Simmons asked about Navalny after Putin deflected and stonewalled his questions on political repression in Russia. Putin used the January 6 incident to argue there is repression in America as well.
“Of course not. We don’t have this kind of habit of assassinating anybody. That’s one,” Putin said to the charge of ordering the attack on Navalny.
“Number two is I want to ask you: Did you order the assassination of the woman who walked into the Congress and who was shot and killed by a policeman? Do you know that 450 individuals were arrested after entering the Congress? And they didn’t go there to steal a laptop,” he continued.
“They came with political demands. Four hundred fifty people have been detained. They’re looking at jail time, between 15 and 25 years. And they came to the Congress with political demands. Isn’t that persecution for political opinions?” Putin asked.
Putin accused the U.S. government of twisting and bypassing its own legal procedures to level excessive punishment against the Capitol protesters, while the Russian dissidents he is accused of repressing are, he claimed, actually criminals who have been convicted with due process:........
Some have been accused of plotting to topple, to take over government power. Some are accused of robbery. They didn’t go there to rob.The people who you have mentioned, yes, they were convicted for violating their status, having been previously convicted, given suspended sentences, which were essentially a warning to not violate the Russian laws. And they completely ignored the requirements of the law. The court went on and turned the conviction into real jail time.
Thousands and thousands of people ignore requirements of the law, and they have nothing to do with political activities, in Russia every year and they go to jail. If somebody is actually using political activities as a shield to deal with their issues, including to achieve their commercial goals, then it’s something that they have to be held responsible for.
m
No comments:
Post a Comment