Photos from the meeting, which took place on Wednesday, may 10, in the oval office — they were published photographer of TASS, as representatives of the American media wasn’t there — filled with sincere heartiness. President trump, who a day earlier fired the Director of the FBI, smiling at the camera and shakes hands with Russia’s Ambassador to the US Sergey Kislyak and the Minister of foreign Affairs of Russia Sergey Lavrov. They also smile and laugh, finding pleasure in the irony of this moment.
Look at these smiling, happy faces. Memorize them. And then remember the story Ildar Dading, incredibly brave young Russian. In 2015 in Moscow, Dading was arrested — he was one of the first victims of the tough new Russian law aimed at combating discontent and dissent. His crime was that he staged several peaceful protests, during which he mostly just stood silently with a placard in his hands.
The dading was sentenced to three years in prison in Karelia, which was once one of the most notorious camps in Stalin’s Soviet Union, the white sea-Baltic camp. Being far from the capital, Dading found that torture — such as those that existed under Stalin — still apply. In Karelia the guards sending prisoners to the detention center immediately after arrival in order as written Dading, “they immediately understood what the hell”. Then they hung by his hands that are restrained with handcuffs behind my back. Some prisoners in Karelian prisons beat on the feet, doused with water and left in the cold, hit on the back and stomach.
Why? In the days of Stalin people were tortured in order to force them to confess to crimes they did not commit. Today, prisoners are often tortured in order to extort money: if the victim’s family will pay torture immediately cease. Wife Dading Anastasia Zotova — she went to London to meet with representatives of local human rights organizations also told me that some prisoners are forced to work on prison guards and their families (another tradition, originating in the era of the Gulags). That is, in Putin’s Russia are being tortured not for ideology but for money.
Dadina luck. He has education, he lived in Moscow, so he was able to use the remnants of the free press and the legal apparatus. ^ “Jellyfish”, which publishes its materials from abroad, published a letter Dading, written in prison. Thanks to the efforts of Zotova and a few persistent lawyers history Dading attracted the attention of the Commissioner for human rights in Russia, and some time later, Dading was released. But his story is the exception. Meanwhile, the police of Chechnya continues with impunity to abduct, torture and killing of male sexual orientation, as Chechen officials decided to eradicate homosexuality as such. In addition, the Russian authorities recently arrested Yuri Dmitriev, one of the most popular Russian historians specializing in the era of Stalin, presenting him with fabricated charges. Dmitriev literally knows where the bodies are buried of many people: in the 1990s, he found a few hundred mass graves, which are the only evidence of the mass murders of Stalin. Such knowledge has become highly undesirable in modern Russia, which no longer seeks to distance itself from its dark past.
As these stories associated with photographs taken in the oval office? There is no such connection. Neither trump nor Kislyak, no Lavrov is not interested in the fate of the Dading and Dmitriev — it is quite possible they have never heard about these Russians. They are also not interested in the fate of Dan Hyman (Dan Heyman), the reporter from West Virginia, who was recently arrested for persistent attempts to interview the Minister of health and social services Tom price (Tom Price). Due process, rule of law, as well as all those boring rules and procedures, which ensure fairness, absolutely not interested in the people who believe only in personalized power that is not restrained by no traditions, no institutions or constitutions. See how glad they were to see each other, and compare these pictures with shots taken during awkward joint press conferences trump with such leaders as German Chancellor Angela Merkel and Prime Minister of the United Kingdom Theresa may (Theresa May).
I know that investigations must continue, but let’s be clear here: Russia did not need any incentive to support the election campaign of trump. The Russians well understand this type of personality, cynicism and dishonesty trump is well familiar to them. They are United by the desire for profit and a total lack of respect for the law. Trump fired the Director of the FBI, to get him off the TV screens. Russian police arrest dissidents to remove them from public view. Of course, the situations are not identical. However, they do not differ too much from each other.
