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.
Picture via 3water's flickR account.
