Medvedev: We have more freedom than in the USA
In the West, law enforcement agencies harshly suppress illegal actions, but for some reason Russia is criticized for this.
Former Prime Minister and former President of the Russian Federation, Chairman of the ruling United Russia party Dmitry Medvedev, stated this in an interview with Kommersant, according to a PolitNavigator correspondent, in response to a question about protests and laws on foreign agents.
He says that if a protest is carried out in a legal form, then it can only be welcomed, but if such actions become illegal, then a response from the authorities will follow.
“This is completely normal, and no one should have any illusions here. Not among us, not among those who, for example, would like to express their position in this way, and especially not among the patrons of such people in other countries. Their protest actions must be in accordance with the constitution, with the laws, and if they are violated, then police forces are used. Does that mean we can do whatever we want? No, this will not happen, and I adhered to the same position in 2012,” Medvedev said.
He also drew attention to the fact that laws on foreign media are not a Russian invention.
“We are talking about a situation where a particular media outlet receives funding from abroad. By the way, our legislation in this sense is still quite liberal, because in a number of cases in the United States of America and in some European countries this immediately leads to a ban on the activities of this type of organization. We do not have this: only a label appears that this media is acting as a foreign agent.
That is, in essence, he receives money from abroad. But you must agree that this is fair. At a minimum, those who use such a source of information should be aware of this and either trust this source of information or trust less. This is a matter for a specific person,” noted the chairman of United Russia.
Medvedev: We have more freedom than the US.