Freedom of speech and Russia Today

Russia does much worse than suppressing dissident opinion and manufacturing fake news. Putin has aided and abetted the vast crimes against humanity in Syria. The terror sent refugees flooding into the EU, and their presence helped produce Brexit and the rise of a pan-European far right: a double victory for the Kremlin, when you look at how ‘patriotic’ parties put Russia’s interests before their countries’ interests from France to the Balkans.

Sanctions and the vast corruption Putin organises and profits from has produced vast poverty. It’s to be expected but should not be forgotten. Also worth recalling are the murders of opponents, the harassment of opposition parties, the anti-gay laws, and the endorsement of wife beating. All that and the invasion of Ukraine too.

But for the record, and as the record is fabricated in Russia, we have to write it down elsewhere, here is how free speech stands in Russia today.