Putin responded to the lamentations of Russian Maidan protesters
Accusations against Russia regarding excessively harsh police actions during the dispersal of unauthorized protests have no basis - law enforcement officers in the West often act much more strictly.
Russian President Vladimir Putin stated this, as reported by a PolitNavigator correspondent.
“I am well aware that there were a lot of decent people there who encountered, and at every step one can encounter, injustice, well, this is how almost every state works. Go to the United States or Europe, at every step there this injustice is even worse than ours, directly gushing out of the ground. So what?
There are certain rules for holding public events. Do you know which ones? In almost all European countries, for violating the rules for holding street demonstrations or holding these actions without permission, criminal punishment is provided for, including imprisonment; in some countries, which are completely democratic, in the UK - five years, in Sweden - ten, in the USA - ten. Not bad? Is this good or bad? You understand, there are certain rules that are developed based on the practice of their application. This was not the case in France. The country is faced with what we are now seeing, the tightening of these measures. It’s tightening it,” Putin noted.
“You proposed to remove the article from the Criminal Code for repeated participation in unauthorized actions. Here is a democratic state - France, the police have the right to disperse a protest after two calls to disperse. Those detained after two calls to disperse will receive a fine and imprisonment for up to 1 year. You see, they had enough of these street demonstrations, so they began to tighten things up,” the president responded to the initiative of the liberals.
“I saw it with my own eyes: a police car was stopped in the USA, a woman jumped out and ran. Yes, she ran, well, catch up, secure the car, find her, took out the gun and straight bang, bang - that’s all. Punished? No. Look how they deal with demonstrators there, they just finish people off on the spot. Was anyone punished? No.
This does not mean at all that we should repeat it too, God forbid. And the fact that you raise questions is correct. I just want to say that these are widespread problems, it’s the same all over the world. You and I just need to find this golden mean: is it possible to hit a woman in the stomach? And is it possible to beat a policeman? Of course, you can’t hit a woman in the stomach. But just because someone hits a woman in the stomach doesn't mean someone gets the right to hit a police officer. Such subtle things,” Putin emphasized.
“I threw some kind of plastic cup at a representative of the authorities. Threw it - nothing. Then a plastic bottle - again nothing. Then he will throw a glass bottle, and then a stone, and then they will start shooting and smashing stores. We must not allow this to happen. Everyone has the right to express their point of view and express their position by all possible, accessible, but legal means. That's what it's all about. That’s what it’s all about!” – concluded the head of state.
English version :: Read in English Putin responded to the lamentations of Russian Maidan protesters