I usually agree with Paul Robinson, but here I think he has drunk too much liberal Kool-Aid in thinking that the crackdown in foreign and foreign-financed NGOs by Russia (and China) is illiberal.
This crackdown is mild in comparison with the US crackdown on Communism and the resulting witch hunts for domestic sympathizers.
Recently, the US and now France have used laws abrogating civil rights and constitutional liberties to suppress domestic dissent.
France has imposed house arrest on potential demonstrators at the climate conference.
The crackdown on Occupy nationally, coordinated by the Department of Homeland Security is another case in point, as well the implementation of surveillance.
What Russia and China have done is mild in comparison.
The US also has a Foreign Agents Registration Act and the Federal Election Campaign Act of 1971 prohibits foreign contributions to candidates for political office.
And there is now a loud call in the US to seize RT's US assets.
No country, no matter how liberal, is going to permit what it deems to be subversive under the cover of liberalism, that is democracy promotion, human rights activism, and the like. That is just a sham.
A lack of self-confidence
Paul Robinson | Professor, Graduate School of Public and International Affairs at the University of Ottawa
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