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U.S. Senator John McCain has written a blistering column for Russian media, telling the Russian people that their President Vladimir Putin is a dissent-quashing tyrant who "doesn't believe in you."
The senior U.S. lawmaker, the 2008 Republican presidential nominee, accosted Putin and his associates for rigging elections, imprisoning and murdering opponents, fostering corruption and "destroying" Russia's reputation on the world stage.
"I am not anti-Russian," McCain wrote in the piece, which his office said was sent to both the Communist Party's Pravda newspaper as well as to online media outlet Pravda.ru. The latter was expected to publish it Thursday, his staff said.
"I am pro-Russian, more pro-Russian than the regime that misrules you today."
McCain last week made no secret of his intention to write an op-ed piece for Russian media after Putin had his own column published in The New York Times.
In that widely quoted piece, Putin criticized Obama's plan to bomb Russia's ally Syria, demanded that Moscow's plan to secure Syria's chemical weapon stockpiles be given time to work, and slammed Washington for "relying solely on brute force" to conduct its international affairs.
In a blunt, often personal counter-punch that ran more than 800 words, McCain wrote that he bears no ill will toward the Russian people, only the country's government which he says ignores humanity's "inalienable rights" of life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.
"President Putin and his associates do not believe in these values. They don't respect your dignity or accept your authority over them," wrote McCain, who was a staunch supporter of U.S. President Barack Obama's early plan for a military strike against Syria for that regime's apparent use of chemical weapons.
"They punish dissent and imprison opponents. They rig your elections. They control your media. They harass, threaten, and banish organizations that defend your right to self-governance," he added.
He brought up the case of Sergei Magnitsky, the Russian lawyer whose prison death three years ago became a black mark on Russia's human rights record.
Magnitsky, McCain said, "exposed one of the largest state thefts of private assets in Russian history."
And "for his beliefs and his courage, he was held in Butyrka prison without trial, where he was beaten, became ill and died." A posthumous "show trial" in a Russian court found him guilty, McCain noted.
Putin, in his third term as president, "is not enhancing Russia's global reputation. He is destroying it," McCain said.
"He has made her a friend to tyrants and an enemy to the oppressed," untrusted by countries seeking a more peaceful and prosperous world.
"President Putin doesn't believe in these values because he doesn't believe in you," McCain said.
The senator quipped to CNN last week that he wanted to write a piece for Pravda -- presumably the mouthpiece newspaper of the Communist Party.
Confusion arose when a reporter for U.S. magazine Foreign Policy contacted Pravda.ru, an electronic news website that is not connected to Pravda newspaper, with the suggestion.
McCain then said Tuesday he would offer his column to the two Pravdas, and "we'll see if both of them take it."
The hawkish senator has been highly critical of the Russian plan to disarm Syria of its chemical weapons.
He said the framework reached by U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry and Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov would be "meaningless" without a U.N. Security Council resolution that threatens the use of force should Syria's President Bashar al-Assad not comply.
© (C) 2013 AFP
32 Comments
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gokai_wo_maneku
And the NSA would be for...? Oh yes, "terrorism", not political dissent.
badsey3
A childish boy who didn't get his war. Wasn't Bradley Manning tortured by McCain's regime? Snowden on the run from the same?
Jeff Ogrisseg
Hooray for metaphors! On the contrary, John, I have to admit that my regard for Mr. Putin has improved over the past couple of months, notwithstanding all the shirtless Putin photos.
gelendestrasse
I would put as much stock in what the Vietnamese government says as I put in what Putin says. Not that I'm a big fan of McCain - he is getting to be too much of a fixture in DC - but he's right about Putin no matter what else he's done.
Get Real
Wow, are all the gays and lesbians in Russia tourists?
Tiger_In_The_Hermitage
“They punish dissent and imprison opponents. They rig your elections. They control your media. They harass, threaten, and banish organizations that defend your right to self-governance,” said McCain. But that could have been said by Putin, afterall the Obama regime is seen to be punishing Snowden who has dissent. Oh but the regime calls that treason.
SuperLib
Link to the full text here:
http://theclickbook.wordpress.com/2013/09/19/john-mccains-response-to-vladimir-putins-op-ed/
It's not as harsh as the JT article makes it out to be. He's talking to the Russian people. I think McCain is past his prime but he wrote a good article.
lostrune2
Putin should had looked to his own constituency first before telling Americans about the shortcomings in their country.
Or you could argue that McCain is only doing what he thinks is best for his country.
Jimizo
Putin is a nasty piece of work but he's made the likes of McCain slide off with his tail between his legs on this one. I actually have a bit of time for McCain but he's got to take this one on the chin and retain a bit of dignity. The article is basically a moralizing hissy fit. Times have changed, John.
Thunderbird2
It sounds like McCain has dialled back the clock to the Cold War... it's almost as if he's trying to incite some kind of uprising to force regime change. Well, he never got his way with Syria so why not go for the puppeteer instead... plonker!
Chucky138
I know, take everything in stride say your piece and I say mine, sun rise sun set just another day.
lostrune2
And Putin too. He hasn't done anything to help the world, threatens shutting gas lines to Europe when he doesn't get his way, continues to arm Syria to prolong the war instead of forcing the sides to the negotiation table, continues warring in Dagestan and Chechnya, and now robbing the civil rights of LGBT community contrary to EU human rights.
Putin doesn't know what's best for the world neither. America is a hypocrite, but supporters of Putin are hypocrites too because Putin is doing what America had been doing, such as supporting strongmen regardless. Whatever one's opinion of McCain is, he's still right about Putin - and nobody seems to be disputing those points.
sfjp330
lostrune2 Sep. 20, 2013 - 05:26AM JST Putin doesn't know what's best for the world neither.
Regardless, the GDP value of Russia represents only 3.25 percent of the world (less than $2 trillion per year). Other than weapons exports and military influence, Russia has very little economic influence with rest of the world. China has 4X more GDP value than Russia.
jeff198527
Just give it time. As the second Great Depression drags on governments will get more desperate to subvert people's freedoms.
Chucky138
McCain is a compulsive liar and warmonger.
Chucky138
www.prisonplanet.com/articles/february2008/020708nevertortured.html
Just googles.
John McCain and the Lying Game - TIME
John McCain and the Lying Game. By Joe Klein Wednesday, Sept. 17, 2008. Subscriber content preview. or Log-In. Share. Facebook; Twitter; Tumblr; LinkedIn; www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,1842288,00.html
SuperLib
I was just teasing you.
Dre Hund
But what did they imprison that Russian lawyer for? Attacks on the state? The U.S. doesn't have any laws against protesting the government actions. Where do you think Syria got their Sarin from?
lostrune2
And people in the rest of Syria will angrily disagree because Putin is not saving them from Assad's aggression. On the contrary. Putin has leverage with Assad; if he wants peace, he just has to pressure Assad into the negotiating table. Otherwise, there's still war, and that's no different than any other warmonger's intent.
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/europe/new-cold-war-in-europe-as-russia-turns-off-gas-supplies-1230036.html
And the US signed arms agreements with Israel and Egypt; yet people always criticize that too.
If Obama had been doing within America what Russia has been doing in Dagestan and Chechnya, people in the whole world would be up in arms. They already do it with what China does in its Tibet provinces.
Yeah, Russia and its support for human rights; yet it likes to see itself as European.
nath
So, so glad that guy didn't get into the White House. In 2013, a candidate who doesn't use the Internet himself directly because he doesn't understand it. No thanks.
Chucky138
http://ca.video.search.yahoo.com/search/video?p=john+mccain+lies
Just googles.
The Mind-blowing Hypocrisy of John McCain: WMD Lie is Good, Repeating ...
Hypocrisy alert: John McCain supported Condoleeza Rice who misled the public on WMD, causing thousands to die, but now attacks Susan Rice. Remember when Condoleezza ... www.politicususa.com/.../mindblowing-hypocrisy-john-mccain-wmd-lie...
Writes Andrew Penn Fitzgerald: “Admittedly this is hearsay, but over the years I’ve read at least two accounts from fellow POWs who said that McCain was ordered by James Stockdale (who was the ranking US officer at the Hanoi POW camp) to turn down the early release because other POWs had been there far longer than McCain and should go first. If any of the POWs is a ‘hero,’ then, it is Stockdale.
“Admiral Stockdale would later speak truth to power when he went on record describing his flights over the Gulf of Tonkin during the famous incident and stated that he had ‘the best seat in the house’ flying over the US vessels, and that the North Vietnamese boat attacks of LBJ’s story were a complete myth. It’s a true shame that most people’s memory of this great man is from a debate against professional politicians for which he had less than two days to prepare after being selected by Perot.”
nath
McCain should look to his own constituency first before telling Russinas about the shortcomings in their country. Putin is an old style technocrat and nationalist who is doing what he thinks is best for his country. Just becasue US doesn't agree is irrelevant.
WilliB
I have not read McCains contribution, but I doubt it is comparable to Putins well thought out piece. This looks like senile tic-tac-toe player taking on a chess master.
McCain, Obama, and the other war mongers are an embarrassment to the world.
Tiger_In_The_Hermitage
There are so many backward people like him in America, its just funny they think they know whats best for the world. People in the mid west, they can't tell the difference between Tokyo and Hong Kong. "Isn't Tokyo a part of China", to keep people voting with their emotions, the American regime has staved them of an education.
I'm A Monkey
KGB officer. President (2 terms). Prime Minister. President again with 6 year term. Once a KGB, always a KGB.
John McCain, a true American. Always.
Serrano
"Putin, I'm sure, doesn't really care what he says."
Putin doesn't really care what most Russians say.
"McCain is a compulsive liar and warmonger"
What did he lie about, specifically?
Serrano
"John McCain: WMD Lie"
Heck, McCain was misled on the current state of Saddam's WMD like a lot of people, including the U.N., who couldn't prove that he didn't have them, and remember, he used chemical weapons against his enemies in the 1980s.
Chucky138
http://www.britannica.com/blogs/2008/02/sex-lies-and-john-mccain/
I admired John McCain a great deal in 2000. In my view, McCain was one of the very few politicians who talked straight to the American people and was the victim of an unforgivable hatchet job by the Bush campaign.
I don’t admire McCain any longer. Forget about the ill-advised mention of a rumored sexual affair between John McCain and lobbyist Vicki Iseman in a recent New York Times story about McCain’s connections with the lobbyist and her clients. In fact, this story and subsequent reporting by the Times, the Washington Post, Newsweek, and ABC News raises serious questions about influence peddling by John McCain. Worse yet, explanations offered by the Senator and his campaign have entwined the once straight-talking McCain in a web of deception.
Top Cop Says McCain Was Never Tortured - Prison Planet.com
"The Vietnamese Communists called him the Songbird, ... arms in when he bailed out of his A-4 Skyhawk that was shot down over the Truc Bach Lake in Hanoi. ... www.prisonplanet.com/articles/february2008/020708_never_tortured.htm
SuperLib
LOL where so you get this stuff? Adorable!
technosphere
True American. Okay. Do you know that many Russians took place in various armed conflicts on ruins of the USSR? Many young Russian males were and still are in Armed Forces due to Law of Conscription. They know what Combat Friendship is. They watched their friends brutally tortured and murdered in Chechnya in 90ies due to a simple treason. In their eyes a traitor is much worse than any plain murderer. Now John Sidney McCain III decided to write " a blistering column for Russian media, telling the Russian people that their President Vladimir Putin is a bloody tyrant". Excellent attempt. Brilliant speech. You know, to fight for Russian hearts and souls one might be a decent person itself. According to retired Colonel of US Army Earl Hopper John Sidney McCain III betrayed US Military Code and gave to Viet Cong a classified military information. Further, many Vietnam veterans share an opinion of Earl Hopper. John Sidney McCain III changed a dirty hole with other American POWs inside to a clean bed in vietnamese hospital for a plate of a hot soup and cup of coffee. That's all. You may talk whatever you wish about "bloody tyrants" but nobody in Russia will hear you just because you are a traitor of your Armed Forces and your country.
technosphere
People of South Ossetia and Syria will angrily disagree with you. They are praising Putin for saving them from aggression.
Yet nobody shut down oil and gas pipes to Europe.
Russia and Asad's government signed agreements. Putin helps Syria to defend a country from Al Qaeda rebels.
Dagestan and Chechnya are parts of Russian Federation. Putin has all rights to support Law and Order there.
When in Rome do as Romans do. Russians, in general, dislike your perverted EU "lgbt affairs". Russian people support a traditional relations between men and women and wanna spit upon rallies and demonstrations of your gays, lesbians and other minorities. And Russia is not a member of EU.
Usually military influence is enough to stop certain bloody aggressors. As for "economic influence", for instance Japan has a huge economic influence, but zero political influence in the World. A puppet of Uncle Sam.
McCain is nothing short of Old F@rt supported mainly by clear and latent traitors, gays and lesbians. Sad, but true.