Re: Russia prosecutes dangerous terrorists
The rule of Law does not apply in Putin's Russia. Criticize Putin and his kleptocracy. You will end up dead, have every asset seized or in prison.
"Alexander Litvinenko was a former officer of the Russian Federal Security Service, FSB and KGB, who fled from court prosecution in Russia and received political asylum in the United Kingdom. According to his wife and father, he was working for MI6 and MI5 after receiving the asylum.
Upon his arrival to London, he continued to support the Russian oligarch in exile, Boris Berezovsky, in his media campaign against the Russian government.[1]
In the UK, Litvinenko became a journalist for a Chechen separatist site, Chechenpress. Litvinenko wrote two books, Blowing up Russia: Terror from within and Lubyanka Criminal Group, where he accused the Russian secret services of staging Russian apartment bombings and other terrorism acts to bring Vladimir Putin to power.
On 1 November 2006, Litvinenko suddenly fell ill and was hospitalized. He died three weeks later, becoming the first confirmed victim of lethal polonium-210-induced acute radiation syndrome.[2] According to doctors, "Litvinenko's murder represents an ominous landmark: the beginning of an era of nuclear terrorism".[3][4][5]
Litvinenko's allegations about the misdeeds of the FSB and his public deathbed accusations that Russian president Vladimir Putin were behind his unusual malady resulted in worldwide media coverage.[6]
Subsequent investigations by British authorities into the circumstances of Litvinenko's death led to serious diplomatic difficulties between the British and Russian governments. Unofficially, British authorities asserted that "we are 100% sure who administered the poison, where and how", but they did not disclose their evidence in the interest of a future trial. The main suspect in the case, a former officer of the Russian Federal Protective Service (FSO), Andrei Lugovoy, remains in Russia. As a member of the Duma, he now enjoys immunity from prosecution. Before he was elected to the Duma, the British government tried to extradite him without success."
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Poisoning_of_Alexander_Litvinenko
"The conviction comes in the wake of several recently passed laws cracking down on opposition, including one that raised the fine for taking part in an unauthorized demonstrations by 150 times to 300,000 rubles (about $9,000). Another measure requires non-government organizations that both engage in vaguely defined political activity and receive funding from abroad to register as “foreign agents.”
The Pussy Riot case has underlined the vast influence of the Russian Orthodox Church. Although church and state are formally separate, critics say its strength and symbolism in the country effectively makes it a quasi-state entity. Some Orthodox groups and many believers had urged strong punishment for an action they consider blasphemous.
The church has a history of cracking down on its critics in post-Soviet Russia: Gleb Yakunin, a priest and former lawmaker was defrocked and excommunicated after discovering in the early 1990s that church leaders had been enlisted as KGB agents.
The current head of the church, Patriarch Kirill, has made no secret of his strong support for Putin, praising his leadership as “God’s miracle,” and has described the punk performance as part of an assault by “enemy forces” on the church.
The church has ardently backed the Kremlin, consecrating new nuclear missiles as “Russia’s guardian angels” and urged young Russians to volunteer for military service in Chechnya."
Above from:
http://life.nationalpost.com/2012/08/20/pussy-riot-russian-orthodox-church-asks-for-mercy/
This is the most accurate summary of the corruption of the Russian courts in favor of Putin and his inner circle. IMO because the Russian Orthodox Church are a "arm of the Putin Government". I think these women are Hero's of Russia.
"Putin is directly responsible for the sentence, said Ruprecht Polenz, head of the foreign affairs committee of the German parliament, the Bundestag. "This is Putin's trial, it is Putin's verdict," Polenz, a member of the center-right Christian Democratic Union (CDU), told DPA. "It is a verdict that makes a mockery of justice and the rule of law." He called on the European Union to make it clear to Russia that "true modernization cannot succeeed without the rule of law and democracy."
The parliament's German-Russian relations coordinator Andreas Schockenhoff, a member of the CDU, commented: "A signal has been sent to Russian society: Whoever criticizes the regime instead of submitting to its will is not a partner, but rather a threat that must be fought."
above from:
http://www.spiegel.de/international/euro...a-a-850655.html