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# Today from the openDemocracy forums
- URL: https://www.opendemocracy.net/en/19142/
- Published: 2006-12-01T12:12:04.000Z
- Updated: 2019-02-14T22:35:40.000Z
- Author: openDemocracy Supporters
- Tags: #en, #Migrated, #Import 2026-04-09 18:23

**by Jessica Reed**

On the openDemocracy forums today: David Wall argues that the West is failing to address Russia's president on the grounds of human-rights principle, while it should do so:

*Putin has developed a public relations art of meeting every criticism of himself or Russia with a matching criticism, even if irrelevant or not a real balance. For example, in Helsinki he matched criticisms of Russia's failing human-rights conditions with a statement that he though the human-rights situation in the European Union was just as bad. He claimed, incredibly, that discrimination against Russians in the Baltic States was just as bad as human-rights violations in Russia. He never admits that Russia has any problems worse than those of other European countries on the human-rights front, nor that anything going on in Russia can be judged by European standards. Stalin took the same line.*

 Read the entire post [here](../../../forums/thread.jspa?forumID=128&threadID=47582&messageID=99417&#99417).

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