It is not simply that he or she is vested with the executive power of just any national government. The role of an American president is unique. My intended focus really was the effect his words and his actions have on the morale of the country, and how that effect may damage his performance. My blunt language suggesting that the president doesn’t love America notwithstanding, I didn’t intend to question the President’s motives or the content of his heart. This, of course, prompted criticism of the President in the pages of the WSJ: It is, to put it mildly, patently bizarre for the President of the United States to defend Vladmir Putin by saying, “There are a lot of killers. Moscow Authorities Detain Protesters and Opposition Party Members.” Federal Treason and Espionage Act goes into effect. President Putin Signs Law to Re-criminalize Defamation. Fines for ‘Promoting Homosexuality’ Imposed. In Syria, where Russia propped up the Assad regime with indiscriminate bombing in Aleppo and elsewhere, Britain, France and the United States have blamed Putin’s government for the mass slaughter of civilians.Īn Amnesty International summary of Putin’s rule leaves no doubt about his totalitarian state: “Journalist Killed. Russia also used disinformation to destabilize the Ukrainian government as Russia annexed Crimea. The goals: to weaken European unity and the NATO alliance and to keep Europe dependent on Russian energy. The Kremlin has provided funding and training for far-right nationalist parties in Europe, and it used its state media and an army of hackers and social-media trolls to spread disinformation in the United States, in continental Europe and in Britain before the Brexit vote. The Russian human rights group Memorial says there are 102 people held in Russian prisons for their political or religious beliefs. Others working on his investigation of corrupt Russian politicians also died suspiciously.Īmong the many business leaders imprisoned or ousted under Putin are Mikhail Khodorkovsky, who was head of the oil giant Yukos, and associate Platon Lebedev. In 2009, lawyer Sergei Magnitsky died in prison after being denied medical care.
That same year, opposition journalist Anna Politkovskaya was shot and killed outside her apartment. The British government said Putin “probably” approved the hit. Putin’s regime blames Chechens, but Nemtsov’s is one of a dozen high-profile murders of opponents widely thought to have been sanctioned by Putin’s government.Īnother Putin opponent, Alexander Litvinenko, was killed in London by polonium poisoning in 2006. Opposition leader Boris Nemtsov was killed outside the Kremlin as he walked home one night last year.