In an explosive interview with Fox News’ Chris Wallace, Russian President Vladimir Putin dismissed political assassinations committed in his country as well as nerve gas attacks on former Russian agents, saying that what happens in Russia is not a whole lot different from political violence seen in the United States.
“Why is it that so many people who are political enemies of Vladimir Putin are attacked?” Wallace asked.
“Well, first of all, all of us have plenty of political rivals. I’m pretty sure president Trump has plenty of political rivals,” said Putin.
“But they don’t end up dead,” Wallace shot back.
“Not always. Well, haven’t presidents been killed in the United States?” Putin asked. “Have you forgotten about—well, has Kennedy been killed in Russia or the United States?”
Of course, Putin is certainly not ignorant of the fact that Kennedy assassin Lee Harvey Oswald was a Soviet sympathizer who defected to the USSR and renounced his American citizenship in 1959.
From the Warren Commission report:
The extent of Oswald’s desire to go to the Soviet Union and of his initial commitment to that country can best be understood, however, in the context of his concomitant hatred of the United States, which was most clearly expressed in his November 26, 1959, letter to his brother Robert. Addressing himself to the question of why “I and my fellow workers and communist’s would like to see the present capitalist government of the U.S. overthrown” Oswald stated that that government supported an economic system “which exploits all its workers” and under which “art, culture and the sprit of man are subjected to commercial enterpraising, [and] religion and education are used as a tool to surpress what would otherwise be a population questioning their government’s unfair economic system and plans for war.”
He complained in his letter about segregation, unemployment, automation, and the use of military forces to suppress other populations. Asking his brother why he supported the American Government and what ideals he put forward, Oswald wrote:
“Ask me and I will tell you I fight for communism,” he wrote. “I will not say your grandchildren will live under communism, look for yourself at history, look at a world map! America is a dicing country, I do not wish to be a part of it, nor do I ever again wish to be used as a tool in its military aggressions. This should answer your question, and also give you a glimpse of my way of thinking. So you speak of advantages. Do you think that is why I am here? For personal, material advantages? Happiness is not based on oneself, it does not consist of a small home, of taking and getting, Happiness is taking part in the struggle, where there is no borderline between one’s own personal world, and the world in general. I never believed I would find more material advantages at this stage of development in the Soviet Union than I might of had in the U.S.”
Wallace’s hard-hitting interview exposed Putin as a master propagandist and skilled manipulator who went so far as to suggest that Russian hackers had done the U.S. a favor by exposing the DNC’s attempts to manipulate the election to benefit Hillary Clinton.
Watch:
Vladimir Putin, asked why his political opponents often end up dead, cites the assassinations of Kennedy and MLK, saying it happens in America too pic.twitter.com/T2xLfifTJY
— Axios (@axios) July 16, 2018
See the full interview below:
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