Posted on 08/27/2018 12:25:22 PM PDT by BenLurkin
Lawyers say the Kremlin is trying to force people to think twice before sharing opinions online -- one of the last remaining spaces where the opposition is relatively free to organise.
"It turns out that for a harmless joke, anybody who doesn't agree with our country's leadership can be prosecuted," Nikitin's lawyer Maxim Kamakin told AFP...
"It seems that in our country only optimists have the right to exist."
In one of the incriminating posts from Nikitin, who is disabled and currently unemployed, a father crudely tells his son that nothing will be getting better in Russia any time soon.
The other features a drawing of a "vatnik" -- a padded coat popular during the Soviet period that is also slang for uneducated Russians who uncritically follow those in authority.
"Too often the actions of law enforcement agencies clearly do not correspond to the potential threat and their reaction to posts or memes are groundlessly harsh," Mail.ru, which owns VKontakte, said earlier in the month.
...
The Russian communications ministry has also supported a relaxation of the law.
…
Dmitry, a 21-year-old from the Urals city of Yekaterinburg, is one internet user who has changed his behaviour because of the steady drip of news of arrests.
"I've just been deleting a lot of my photos and posts from my wall that have been building up there for the last couple of years," he said of his VKontakte profile. He told AFP he would refrain from posting any thoughts on politics to the network, keeping these instead for other channels.
"Now there's a definite fear -- the state's going crazy and you can be arrested just for 'liking' something. I don't want to get caught up in all that, I want to be safe."
(Excerpt) Read more at thejakartapost.com ...
[ “It turns out that for a harmless joke, anybody who doesn’t agree with our country’s leadership can be prosecuted,” Nikitin’s lawyer Maxim Kamakin told AFP... ]
What, they got Mark Zuckerberg over there too?
Or at least Democrats?
A Russian and an American are arguing about their two countries.
The American says, “In my country, I can say that I don’t like the American President.”
The Russian retorts, “Is same in my country, I too, can say I don’t like American President.”
What if what these Russians were posting is what most of us, Americans, all ready knew and consider to be true about Hillary?
Exactly
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