Biden-Putin Summit

Just concluded the first F2F meeting, and both gave press conferences afterward. Results sound hopeful, even if the views of what's happening vary widely.

One line of reporter questioning I found fascinating was when somebody asked Putin if he plans to cut back on his suppression of opposition.

He said he's trying to prevent a January 6-like event in the Russian Federation.

Fascinating to parse that out. Opposition in Russia is to HIS RULE, which has been what, 12 years now? The Trump insurrectionists were trying to overturn an election where Trump lost. They were trying to PREVENT a new administration... not trying to oust an old one, as in Putin's Russia.

I wonder how the Proud Boys and Boogaloo Bois and Oath Keepers and Three Percenters and Texas Freedom Force feel about being compared to Alexei Navalny? About being told that Putin would capture and jail them?

I wonder how Biden and the new DOJ will deal with the intersection between free speech/1st Amendment rights, and dangerous sedition?

Maybe, give those guys a free one-way ticket to Moscow?

The irony is compounded, when you think of it, by the fact that Putin supported Trump in 2016 & 2020, and actively stoked the fires of the Q-Anon insurrectionists.

Yeah, he doesn't want it at home. Here in the U.S. though, hey that's a bonus.