The comparison was not between putin's Russia and Russia 50 years ago. It was between Russia and USA. Despite everything that is fucked up and wrong with US Government, I would hope (perhaps naively), its still better than Russia in terms of human rights at least?
> I would hope (perhaps naively), its still better than Russia in terms of human rights at least?
That depends on a lot of factors:
- are you homosexual
- ethnically caucasian
- A subscriber to Islam
- have a name that matches the name of someone on a no-fly list
- an 'enemy combatant' (ages 13 and up)
- an activist of sorts
Or anyone of a hundred other arbitrary criteria. Those could make the difference between a safe & secure life 'just' being harassed periodically by people in uniform or spending time in Gitmo or Siberia.
Actually, that matters in Russia a lot, too. Although, their meaning of the word is different (Russian Caucasians are people originated from around the Caucasian Mountains; that's where all the guerilla fighting is currently going on).
