I don't think Pussy Riot or Green Peace are the best examples, oscar. Try to board a rig in the North Sea or Gulf of Mexico and you'd be sent to jail at the very least under the suspicion of sabotage. And I would imagine a bunch of singers entering the Cathedral in Milan and doing what Pussy Riot did would have their asses arrested by the Carabinieri.

Yes they would be arrested. They would not be sentenced to two years imprisonment though.

PE - inappropriate use of a question mark - muted for 24 hours

Right, but the arresting is the point I was trying to make. You claimed that Putin's Russia doesn't accept free speech and protests against it. I have just provided plausible examples of how other countries would not tolerate protests of the manner Russia has seen either. Punishment is a separate issue that I will concede to you on

lol, dropping the mute instead of addressing the flagrant contradiction

guess we don't need to take you seriously on anything anymore

"Sure, in those countries the police would probably have removed them from the church, but they would certainly not have been sentenced to two years imprisonment."

http://berkleycenter.georgetown.edu/resources/essays/national-laws-on-blasphemy-germany?q=blasphemy

Not true.

"You can point to other countries all you want but that doesn't make it right. "

It makes all the nonsense about it being Putin suppressing dissent against himself utter bunk, and the makes the western governments who raised such a fuss about Pussy Riot hypocrites.

"The verdict included that being a feminist equates to religious hatred."

You go into a church and say the Lord's shit over and over again. You think that sort of thing should be allowed in a 'free society'? What if a bunch of skinheads ran into a synagogue and began bashing Judaism during a service? Same view? Or how about if a bunch of rednecks did this to Muslims? Same view? Or to Hindus?

It's just a bunch of realpolitik masquerading as concern for human rights.

"Also, even though you keep painting them as violent vandals they were not at all violent"

Not at all violent. So evidently turning over police cars with cops still in them, as Voina (members of whom became Pussy Riot) did in 2010 in Palace Coup, is not 'violent'. Or sexually assaulting policewomen. Or vandalizing bridges in St. Petersburg.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UpNhl8BLVP0

Really what do "innocent protesters" have to do before they lose their innocence vs a government you despise?

"You know that he was brutally beaten by the police right? And you know he was in prison merely for being a presidential candidate right?"

None of this is true. Not even remotely true. Brutally beaten my foot. He certainly didn't look 'brutally beaten' coming out of arrest, and he supposedly bit a police officer. He wasn't arrested for being a Presidential candidate. He was arrested for charging the electoral commission and for engaging in an unauthorized rally. Guess what, arrests for unauthorized rallies happen all the freaking time everywhere. It's not a sign of an unfree society, and it's not an indication that Kasparov was being arrested for being a presidential candidate. He is widely viewed as being an American puppet due to his notorious affiliations in the US with unsavory groups. He is irrelevant.

That you're so intent on reaching for whatever dirt you can muster up on Russia, and seem to believe any anti-Russian press you read, is quite a pity.

Russia doesn't like gays ...... the UK will send them Stephen Fry as a punishment, they must learn their lesson, gays are OK.
After a couple of hours with Mr Fry I'm sure they will be converted.....

"Russia is a cultural backwater - generally speaking"

Bolshoi Theater and the Pushkin Museum I suppose doesn't compete with artifacts and jewels stolen from India.

"guess we don't need to take you seriously on anything anymore"

Wait, were we taking him seriously before?

"http://berkleycenter.georgetown.edu/resources/essays/national-laws-on-blasphemy-germany?q=blasphemy"

Seriously, Putin? Yeah, lots of countries have laws against blasphemy. In free countries those are just ancient relics that aren't actually being enforced though. Germany, which your link is about, is a case in point. There was one guy in 2006 that got a suspended (as in didn't actually go to jail) sentence after dispersing toilet paper with the word Koran on it, but that's about the worst they did with that blasphemy law over at least the last couple of decades.

It is almost as though you are trying to support my point that in free countries people don't get sentenced to imprisonment.


"http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UpNhl8BLVP0"

Lol. That's your evidence of them being violent? They tried to hug police officers and kiss them on the cheek!!! Sexual harassment my ass. That's just another peaceful protest.


"You go into a church and say the Lord's shit over and over again. You think that sort of thing should be allowed in a 'free society'? What if a bunch of skinheads ran into a synagogue and began bashing Judaism during a service? Same view? Or how about if a bunch of rednecks did this to Muslims? Same view? Or to Hindus?"

I do not think at all that this sort of thing should be allowed in a free society. That's just you trying to throw a red herring at me. I think it is perfectly normal for people that do such things to be arrested in the interest of public order. What I object to is them subsequently being prosecuted and sentenced to long prison terms. That doesn't happen in the free world. In the free world they are arrested, kept at the police office for at most a couple of days, and in then released without further prosecution.

Yeah, I know Kasparov is irrelevant. The Russian establishment made sure he is now didn't they. One of the ways they did that was by discrediting him as an American puppet. Obviously you believe such drivel without question.

"Brutally beaten my foot. He certainly didn't look 'brutally beaten' coming out of arrest, and he supposedly bit a police officer."

Well, he says he was beaten, and I believe that at the rally incident there were many eye witnesses as well. That doesn't count for you though, no, but "supposedly bit a police officer" now that some convincing shit now isn't it?


"That you're so intent on reaching for whatever dirt you can muster up on Russia, and seem to believe any anti-Russian press you read, is quite a pity."

Is there an actual argument in there? Or did you just figure that painting me as a Russia hater (which I am not) would discredit my contributions to this thread?

Putin - how can you defend a democratic govt that openly discriminates against gays, you are a confused man, once we have converted/eliminated/imprisoned/silenced all of the gays then who is next on the list, I thought we had seen the end of this persecution in Russia ...... their fight is my fight, and all decent right-minded people.

Don't be such a drag N-babe. There's other countries that are much worse on the gays so whatever happens in Russia is okay.