Soviet Style: Vladimir Putin Bans U.S. Adoptions of Russian Children
Just as it was fine in Putin’s eyes for Americans to brutalize Russian children before the Magnitsky law, it was also fine for them to brutalize the inmates of Abu-Ghraib and Guantanamo before the Magnitsky law. Russia doesn’t take steps to fight for human rights around the world; on the contrary, Russia actively supports human-rights abusers across the globe, from Chavez in Venezuela to Assad in Syria to the Communist regime in China.
Just as in Soviet times, this knee-jerk asymmetry is becoming a hallmark of Russian society. Russia’s national cycling team was recently booted off the World Tour for cheating. Russia’s response was predictable: it told the World Tour that if it was getting banned, it wouldn’t host cycling events, not even those already promised. It took its marbles and went home, just as it did with Magnitsky.
The Sovietization of Russia is moving forward with breathtaking speed. A measure is currently moving in the Russian parliament which will make it a serious criminal offense for a TV news broadcast to contain more than 30% negative stories. That same body has already passed measures criminalizing criticism of the Putin regime that is too sharp, and measures gutting the freedom of the Internet. Harsh new restrictions are being imposed on reporters and human rights advocates, as Putin rapidly turns back the clock on post-Soviet democracy reforms.
Putin recently told reporters at a news conference that, for all practical purposes, he’s infallible.
The military rhetoric is heading back to Soviet levels as well. State-sponsored propaganda outlet Russia Today recently trumpeted the threats issued by high-ranking Kremlin figure Dmitri Rogozin to sink U.S. ships in the Black Sea. He insulted and challenged NATO, stating:
We must be frank about this. I was the Russian envoy to NATO for four years and I know what language they understand best of all.
In this context, the overwhelming passage of the Magnitsky law is a hopeful sign. Barack Obama, who has been siding with Putin since his first days in office, was exposed as a lame duck when the Democrat-controlled U.S. Senate passed Magnitsky in a landslide despite Obama’s determined opposition. For the first time since Obama took office, the U.S. made a real stand against Putin in defense of American values and moral leadership. Putin’s neo-Soviet reaction shows the measure is devastatingly effective, and indeed has already drawn blood.
It seems that the US has a MSM rule that it must never ever print or speak of anything that might in any way bring disrepute on Obama.
Bhenghazi fiasco and cover up by Rice and none other than Obama himself gets a big yawn. Fast and furious a big so what if hundreds of Mexicans are dead. Trillion dollar deficits a shrug that its just business as normal. Skyrocketing costs in dollars and jobs due to Obamacare not any kind of story there. Millions added to food stamps and to S/S disability rolls who cares?
Congress doesn’t have to pass any law about not having no more that 30% negative coverage of Obama when the MSM is self policing in giving Obama nothing but high praise no matter what!
Sorry Kim, this is not your best effort. Sure, Putin is playing politics, just as dear leader is. But, goodness gracious, should we adopt all the children in the world just because we have nicer television sets than they do? I think not. So, the Russians have a certain amount of national pride. Good for them. Putin is playing to that. Good for him. Instead of complaining about Russia, maybe you should take a good look at America. Because it seems to have escaped your attention, not all is coming up roses in the U.S.A. of late. Uncontrolled borders, millions upon millions of permanently unemployed workers and not a single major or minor institution that isn’t suffering from severely corroding and corrupting influences. The family, to bring us back to particulars, is in very bad shape in this country. What did George Will tell us recently? One third of all children are born to single, unwed mothers. How many are killed in abortions? How many languish in poverty and drug abuse? When it comes to national pride, how many years has it been since people actually referred to themselves as American? It’s almost always preceded with a qualifier, if the hyphenated American part is even mentioned at all. No Kim, it’s not hard to see why Putin actually has a leg to stand on when it comes to this adoption issue. Sorry to say, but true, he is correct to do as he did.
The point is not to “adopt all the children in the world just because we have nicer television sets than they do”, but to adopt the ones who would not get adopted by Russian parents. Those born with Down Syndrome, those who are HIV+, those with other disabilities, who would spend all their lives in a mental institute, when they could spend it with a loving family. And if that family happens to be American — well so be it.