It’s official now, Russia and Brazil support Assange and Wikileaks. Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin said on Thursday that the arrest of WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange showed the West was hypocritical in its criticism of Russia’s record on democracy. Brazil’s President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva on Thursday expressed “solidarity” with jailed WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange, criticising the Australian activist’s arrest as a blow against “freedom of expression.”
That’s 2 out of 4 BRICs. Let’s see if the remaining two show some courage now.
Definitely not the Confucians. Nor the Indians. And absolutely, definitely not the Iranian Mullahs. Great friends of free speech they are, all of them, just like Vladimir. I like the Kremlin joke about the Nobel Peace Prize though…
DEAR GOD!!
This is why Russia needs a viable opposition leader not Putin, or western interests behind Medvedev the Goldman Sachs BRIC being the worse.
What is Putin going to do when Wikileaks releases its documents aimed at Russia and China that are still to be released?
He will look like the fool he is.
Jack, though I mostly don’t agree with you, I think you have a point here. Assange has said that he has a lot of documents against Russia, so I really don’t understand why suddenly Wikileaks is getting so much support from the Russian government.
“When life hands you lemons, make lemonade.” There is nothing Putin can do about Wikileaks at this point but score a few points against the US for the hysteria it is displaying over Assange. Same for Chavez.
Whining about how they’re being presented will only reinforce the propaganda at this point. Treating it as the absurdity it is and staying above it all while turning it back on the US whenever possible is the wisest course.
The second part of Putin’s answer also puts the matter into perspective:
When asked about leaked U.S. diplomatic cables which cast him as Russia’s “alpha-dog” ruler of a corrupt bureaucracy, Putin questioned whether the U.S. Foreign Service was a “crystal clean source of information”
Exactly.
@Carlo
Jack, though I mostly don’t agree with you, I think you have a point here.
In this particular post or in general?
Wikileaks revelations so far although on the surface appear to embarrass the US and their allies serve a predictable geo-political agenda and a course that I was expecting.
F. William Engdahl nalysis of Wikileaks.
http://www.voltairenet.org/article167733.html