According to Pravda itself: "*Meta Platforms is recognized as an extremist organization, its activities are banned in Russia, and its social networks Facebook and Instagram are also banned in Russia. Extremist and terrorist organizations banned in the Russian Federation: AUE, Right Sector, Ukrainian Insurgent Army, ISIS (IS, Islamic State), Al-Qaeda, UNA-UNSO, Majlis of the Crimean of the Tatar people", "Jehovah's Witnesses"... A complete list of organizations under injunction in Russia is available on the website of the Ministry of Justice of the Russian Federation"
Now I tried to access the Ministry of Justice of the Russian Federation and couldn't find the complete list. I'm not saying that it's not there, I'm saying that I couldn't access it.
On Wikipedia, (I know, don't use Wikipedia,) they listed 41 Terrorist Organizations -According to Russia-, so I am taking a leap of faith that the list is accurate. About 35 of the 41 entities were Muslim or Islamic related, including many groups that the United States also considers Terrorist Organizations, such as Al-Qaeda, the Taliban, and the Al-Nusra Front.
But there were a few curious entries:
Columbine International Youth Movement?
According to Putin, every time there's a school shooting, it was inspired by the Columbine teens.
The Network?
Apparently Putin has an anarchist problem. Who knew?
The Right Sector?
And this is where things get interesting....
The Right Sector is a collection of far-right and right wing Ukrainian Nationalist Groups. Why does Putin think they're terrorists? Because he is selling you that they are Nazis.
Now I don't have my head in the sand, a few of them ARE Nazis. But you know where else there's small Nazi populations? The United States, Britain, Germany, Poland, and Hungary.
Any right wing group in Ukraine that uses Nazi imagery isn't talking about marching on Poland, they are Right Wing Ukrainian Nationalists.
But you know who runs Russia? A bunch of Right Wing Russian Nationalists. According to the Budapest Memorandum, in exchange for Ukraine surrendering their nuclear weapons in the 1990's, Russia (or the United States for that matter) couldn't invade Ukraine unless their sovereignty was threatened.
Neither Russia nor Ukraine lean left. Both countries reject immigrants from the Middle East or Africa. Neither country supports LGBTQ+ Rights. Neither country is progressive when it comes to Women's Rights. Russia uses to the Orthodox Church to prop up their regime.
Russia's invasion comes down to the fact that Putin needed a Boogeyman in order to justify the invasion and found convenient scapegoats in a couple of dozen Nazi-related Groups. He needed an excuse (no matter how poor) to circumvent the Budapest Memorandum.
President Zelensky (who is Jewish), is no farther to the Right than Warmonger Putin.
Putin wants Ukraine to be part of Russia.
Ukraine craves their independence.
It is that simple.
Ukrainian "Nazis" were about Ukrainian nationalism. No real Nazi would follow a Jewish Leader into war. Again, there are more Nazis in America than in Ukraine. Do you support Russia invading America?
Ukraine was never, ever going to march into Russia.
Editor's Note: Well, maybe now.
Which circles us back to Facebook. How is Facebook an Extremist Organization?
Because it gives a voice to some of the 41 Terrorist Groups Listed above. Putin's definition of a Terrorist Organization isn't the same as America's or a Private Company's definition.
Your argument is that we should silence terrorist speech? Okay, how would Facebook have done that in Russia versus how they would have done that in the United States?
That's almost an impossible task.
"Fred Hunt, you might be the stupidest person on the internet. It's very easy to tell a bunch of ordinary citizens from international terrorists. Pravda may be an arm of the Russian Government, but we have an independent media in America that can delineate terrorist organizations."
Really?
Based Politics: "The Twitter Files were a series of stories that broke late last year in which (Matt) Taibbi, Bari Weiss, Michael Shellenberger and others were given access to the inner-company communications of Twitter’s old regime before billionaire Elon Musk purchased it, revealing that the company had suppressed news and opinion often at the behest of the U.S. government.
The Twitter Files exposed a vast and growing American censorship regime."
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