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Comment by asjw | Hacker News Reader

> one of the worst crimes committed by humanity in the last 100 years?

As much as I oppose to US military politics, I think that in the past 100 years there have been much worse crimes than US wars in the middle east.

If I think of the worst criminal of the modern era (post WW2) the first name that comes to mind is Vladimir Putin.

For once: he wiped a tenth of the entire Chechen population, it's like if someone ordered the killing of 34 millions of US citizens.

Lucky us the red army is not the red army anymore.

He founded and promoted terrorism in Ukraine, shot down civilian airplanes, bombed refugees camps, used chemical warfare, prohibited by international treaties, on civilians

He also ordered the assassination of a number of journalists

But Snowden is his guest, so he must be a good man...

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> If I think of the worst criminal of the modern era (post WW2) the first name that comes to mind is Vladimir Putin.

Mao, Pol Pot, Stalin

Yes, and one would think that after all those examples of fine leadership, us 'civilized' nations would have learned a thing or two?

Putin's regime carried out these crimes in the Caucasus in the 21st century (and earlier), and they are continuing even as you read this comment...

The Human Rights ideology is a con. No one is willing to make it real, i.e. to wage war to force other nations to conform to it. Absent that it will continue to be internationally irrelevant, window dressing that occasionally effects marginal decisions and never impacts anyone powerful.

OK, for the people who disagree with my comment, here is the reason we should support investigative journalism:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_journalists_killed_in_...

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Russian_government_censorship_...

Chechnya has been essentially cut off - considering its recent history, any guesses why??

Wow, a day later, and the votes are still swinging up and down. I wonder why - some Russian apologists haunting this place? Shame on you.

I'll say it plainly: Russia has no place in the Caucasus. Get the hell out, and mind your own damn country.

And if this was a general rule, we'd have a lot less conflict in the world.

USA has no place in Afghanistan, Iraq, Syria, Libya, Ethiopia, Saudi, etc...

Or US own creations: Videla, Pinochet, Saddam Hussein, which perspective make US one of the major threat to World's safety.

or Franco and the regime of the colonels in Greece, because dictatorship is not a communist's only trait, as US like to think.

But I think Putin is different

He s not crushing only his own people, like those dictators did, he acts like the leader of an international terrorist organization with full power over an entire nation resources (from energy to army, from media to industry) and when he's not directly in charge, he puts one of his puppets there, changing the constitution or bending the law if he needs it, and that's why I think he's more dangerous.

Putin is a Trump who made it.

> For once: he wiped a tenth of the entire Chechen population, it's like if someone ordered the killing of 34 millions of US citizens.

The first Chechen war did not happen under Putin.

> down civilian airplanes

I doubt that he gave his personal command to do that.

I doubt that something happened under Putin's control is commanded without asking Putin first.

Pop quiz: who is supporting military operations over Yemen right now, resulting in millions of starving victims on the ground?

(Hint: it isn't Putin.)

Putin is financing both sides to extend Russian influence over the territory

He's not actively involved in the war, he's sitting on it

Evidence?

Years of articles from major outlets all over the world and researchers that wrote about it

Even Wikipedia acknowledges it

> Russia has supported both the Yemen Arab Republic and the People's Democratic Republic of Yemen on several occasions and established close relations with them.

Or in a recent study published on February 2020

> This chapter explores the antecedents for Russia’s solitary abstention vote on UN Security Council Resolution 2216 in April 2015, by analyzing the Russia-Yemen bilateral relationship under former president Ali Abdullah Saleh and Russia’s handling of the 2011 Yemeni revolution that heralded Abdurabbo Mansour Hadi’s presidency. It then examines Russia’s reaction to the outbreak of war and shifting positions on conflict resolution within the context of Moscow’s strategic interests in Yemen and regional power projection ambitions.

Counter evidence?

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