Thread by @msvetov

Ten likes one fact about Putin's Russia and everything that Western right wing gets wrong about Putin.

Russia has one of the harshest laws against free speech in the world.
Article 282 is used every day to arrest people for posting memes. Just in the last two weeks some 20 people were arrested. tjournal.ru/74334-luchsheg…

This law is routinely used to curb opposition to Putin's dictatorship. What happened to Tommy Robinson is peanuts compared to what happens daily in Russia.

My friend Ruslan Sokolovsky spent over a year in jail for "inciting hatred" after playing pokemon-go inside a church. He is still featured on the Russia's terrorist list theguardian.com/technology/201…

Elections in Russia are a sham but even those become increasingly rare. Most Russian cities lost the right to choose their own mayor at all. For example, mayor of Ekaterinburg, third largest city in Russia, is appointed and not elected.

5. The idea that Putin is a champion of traditional Russian values is bonkers. Putin's immigration policies are exactly akin to those of other European countries. Attached is a photograph of central Moscow during the muslim prayer.

6. Russia has visa free regime with most central-asian
countries, like Uzbekistan, Tajikistan, Azerbaijan, Kyrgizstan, etc. Thanks to rampant corruption, millions of illegal workers stay in Russia indefinitely.

7. The idea that Russia has low tax rate is false. In addition to 20% VAT we pay mandatory 22% towards the government pension fund, 13% Income tax, 5.1% for compulsory medical insurance and 2.9% into Social Security fund. A total of 64%. Not included are crazy hight import taxes.

8. Relatively high birthrate in Russia is exclusively explained by explosive growth of minorities. pics.v6.top.rbk.ru/v6_top_pics/me…

9. In the last 20 years Putin held several amnesties for illegal immigrants. Another one is in the works right now. znak.com/2017-02-21/v_t…

10. Apparently, some 15,000 white South African farmers seek refuge in Russia. Aside from staying in South Africa this is probably the dumbest move one can do. Massacres of rural population are a thing in Russia too and very few of them get reported. nytimes.com/2010/12/12/wor…

11. In addition to article 282 Russia has a dedicated "anti-meme law" globalvoices.org/2015/04/10/rus… Seriously, it just blows my mind that so many people on the western right see Putin as sympathetic to free speech.

12. Russian nationalists is the most heavily prosecuted group in Russia. Every remotely successful nationalist movement is quickly outlawed by Putin's government. There's not a single nationalist party in Russia.

13. Russia used to have a movement against illegal immigration. It was outlawed by the Putin's government and its leader Aleksander Potkin was sentenced to 7.5 years in jail. rapsinews.com/judicial_news/…

14. Russian students are tested for extremism and their loyalty to the government. kommersant.ru/doc/3164570

15. Think SJW's and what happens on American campuses is crazy? In Russia students are threatened with expulsion for refusing to vote for Putin. timeshighereducation.com/news/russian-s…

16. Even if you keep all your questionable memes in a private album, invisible to anyone else, you will still get two years in prison. lenta.ru/news/2018/04/1…

17. Two months ago I was looking to give a lecture in Moscow about what it means to be a Russian patriot. I had 21 venue cancellations before finally finding a place to speak. The lecture was a huge success by the way.

https://twitter.com/msvetov/status/1010595643340017664

18. I was once detained for trying to give a lecture about free market economy. reason.com/blog/2017/11/0… I had to read it from inside the police van.

19. Property rights enjoy no protection in Russia. Three years ago Mayor of Moscow overnight bulldozed several thousand small businesses in Moscow and nationalised their land. meduza.io/en/feature/201…

20. Russia has a serious problem with police torture. This year alone there was 54 recorded cases. But it's just a tip of the iceberg, because police torture is almost never reported meduza.io/feature/2018/0…

21. To initiate a referendum in Russia you have to collect 2 million offline signatures in a span of one month, but no more than 50k in each region. And there's a big list of issues that can't be taken to a referendum at all. Needless to say, there are no referendums in Russia.

22. 92% of all land in Russia is owned by the government. The rest mostly belongs to Putin's cronies. One of the biggest landlords in Russia is Former Minister of Agriculture Alexander Tkachov. Somehow he acquired 641 thousand hectares. en.crimerussia.com/gover/agrocomp…

23. 70% of Russian GDP is government spending and that number is growing every year. m.vedomosti.ru/economics/arti…

24. Russia includes 22 republics most of which have a second official language. Even in cities with Russian majority, schoolchildren in those republics are forced to study local languages.

25. The idea that Putin had to invade Ukraine to protect Russians from Ukrainian nazis is absolute garbage. It was purely a land grab. There are many places where Russians are genuinely oppressed, like Turmenistan. ria.ru/world/20180422… Putin doesn't care about them one bit.

26. Think "Prism" and collecting metadata is bad? Russia has "Yarovaya law" that mandates internet providers to store //all users' internet traffic// up to 6 months in case government wants to have a peak. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yarovaya_…

25b. When the war in Ukraine was just getting started, I wrote an in-depth appeal to western right to stop eating up Putin's propaganda. Everything in this article still holds true. libertarian-party.ru/blog/an-appeal…

27. Russia is the biggest country in the world but our total GDP is 33% smaller than that of Italy and 3 times smaller when adjusted per capita. Russia is very poor. countryeconomy.com/countries/comp…

28. Three years ago Russians had their retirement savings ransacked by the government to plug holes in the budget. reuters.com/article/2014/0… There are no more retirement savings left and all pensions are now payed by taxpayers. Incidentally, taxes were raised.

29. Putin is a good friend and supporter of Maduro, Mugabe, Erdogan and other enemies of the western world. Seriously, how stupid do you have to be to think he supports any of the right wing causes? rferl.org/a/putin-offers…

30. Putin routinely waives multi-billion dollar debt for third world countries and then proceeds giving them new loans even though Russia's own population is struggling. theatlantic.com/business/archi… sputniknews.com/russia/2017092…

31. Government prevents ordinary Russians from benefiting from Russia's abundant natural resources. If a Russian finds gold on his own plot of land it still belongs to the government.