Putin: A Plea for Caution From Russia
"The law is still the law, and we must follow it whether we like it or not."<p>The irony of Putin saying this cannot be understated. This entire editorial is dripping with it.<p>For those of you buying into his rhetoric, remember that Putin is the head of a "virtual mafia state" [1] and a government of thugs who are too busy stealing the wealth generated by Russia's natural resources to pursue the eternal dream of Russia as a global hegemon on par with the United States. The Russian state has assassinated journalists [2] and jailed political opponents with impunity while the bureaucracy (now intertwined with organized crime) steals money at an alarming rate [3]. They don't even bother to hide it anymore (Egregious example: Magnitsky [4] and Litvinenko [5]).<p>I hate the idea of the US getting involved with a civil war on the other side of the world and Putin is right in his logic, but as an immigrant from Russia I can't help but feel I'm reading the same propaganda but with a translator. If at this point, Putin sounds reasonable and is starting to look like the better of two devils, we're in deep shit.<p>[1] <a href="http://www.theguardian.com/world/2010/dec/01/wikileaks-cables-russia-mafia-kleptocracy" rel="nofollow">http://www.theguardian.com/world/2010/dec/01/wikileaks-cable...</a><p>[2] There's a whole damn wikipedia article dedicated to this: <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_journalists_killed_in_Russia" rel="nofollow">http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_journalists_killed_in_R...</a><p>[3] <a href="http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/05/24/russia-fifth-of-defense-b_n_866050.html" rel="nofollow">http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/05/24/russia-fifth-of-def...</a><p>[4] <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sergei_Magnitsky" rel="nofollow">http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sergei_Magnitsky</a><p>[5] <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Andrey_Lugovoy" rel="nofollow">http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Andrey_Lugovoy</a><p>Edit: To clarify, yes this is emotional and ad hominem. But come on, how many of you thought bombing Syria was a good idea to begin with? How many were entirely unaware of the US government's terrible record of following international law? This article is only on the front page of HN because of its author and it bears remembering how Putin's actions have spoken far louder than his words.