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Annual Human Rights Council Meets with Putin
Vladimir Putin held the annual meeting with his recently-revised Human Rights Council. As one would expect from a human rights meeting held in Moscow, a lot of “pro-human” developments were reached and some really smart pickling tips were shared by the dictator-turned-homemaker president.
Russia’s grief-stricken moms had some good cries and were quite thankful for the tips.
Really, though, it turns out in a wonderfully Orwellian manner, the hand-picked sycophant attendees were warned before the meeting that anything could be discussed: Except human rights abuses in Russia, the war in Ukraine, and the high casualty rate of Russian soldiers in Ukraine.
The presidential Human Rights Council in Russia was told “not to upset” Russian President Vladimir Putin with questions about the ongoing invasion of Ukraine, the Moscow Times reported, citing the investigative news website Vyorstka. Putin and the council held their annual meeting on Wednesday (Human Rights Council Was Warned).
Among other topics that the president’s aides felt might launch the president into a fit of trembling was that fun video showing the man’s head being cleaved open by a sledgehammer.
Here, I do have to agree with the esteemed president. A discussion about the finer points of pickling is no place for a video showing brains oozing out of a head. There is a place and time for everything (at the Hague, for instance).
If you recall, last month Putin removed from the council all members who had made it their life’s work to improve human rights in Russia. Remember, being a human rights activist within the framework of the Russian government is like being a transgender teen at a MAGA rally. You might be thinking that you are making a statement but no one is listening.
Putin in November booted a number of members from the council, including xenophobia researcher Alexander Verkhovsky and anti-torture campaigner Igor Kalyapin. Meanwhile, he added supporters of the war to the body, including Alexander Kots, a war correspondent for Russian newspaper Komsomolskaya Pravda who was sanctioned by the UK (Human Rights Council Was Warned).
