Who-could-have-guessed? Dep’t: Bundy’s racism, Putin’s torture

The Guardian reports on torture in Ukraine… the part of it ruled by Col. Putin’s proxies, of course.

The body of a second person found tortured near Slavyansk was identified on Friday as Yuriy Popravko, a 19-year-old Kiev student and Maidan activist. He was found dumped next to Vladimir Rybak, a city councillor from the town of Horlivka, and a prominent opponent of separatism. Rybak was abducted shortly after trying to push his way into Horlivka city hall and remove the “Donetsk People’s Republic” flag. Kiev says it has intercepts showing that Slavyansk’s self-appointed mayor Vyacheslav Ponomarev was involved in Rybak’s murder.

Popravko disappeared on 16 April, after apparently travelling to Kharkiv in the east of Ukraine to see his girlfriend. According to Vesti newspaper, his relatives are trying to retrieve his body from Slavyansk’s pro-Russian militia, so far without success. Gruesome photos circulating on the internet show that Rybak and Popravko were tortured then drowned.

The same bunch of thugs seem to have seized observers from the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe. Remember, this is just days after the Russians signed a deal calling for the Russian proxies in East Ukraine to stand down and for OSCE monitors to be sent it. Since then, the Kremlin hasn’t said a word to encourage its allies to comply. So can we hear some more from The Nation about how “diplomacy” - which in Nation-ese means “doing what the Russians want”  - is the key to a peaceful solution?

The right-wing nuts who supported Cliven Bundy and the left-wing loons who support Russian policy in Ukraine have some things in common, including a willingness to blame everything in the universe on the U.S. government. But there is a difference.

When it turned out that Bundy was a flaming racist, most of his prominent supporters had the decency to back away from him.  Not that they have any excuse; it shouldn’t have been a surprise that someone who calls in an armed mob to resist a court order might turn out to be a bad person in other ways. But at least they did back off.

The Putin backers aren’t like that. When it turns out that the side they’ve been on is using torture, their silence is pretty damned deafening. Of course they should have known that a regime run by a career secret policeman has no compunction about using torture, just as Bundy’s fans should have known. But it would be nice if just one of them had the decent hypocrisy to express disapproval.

If they get around to it, no doubt they can explain to us why it’s the fault of the IMF and Right Sector, and of course of John Kerry for hurting the Kremlin’s feelings.

 

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