Britain has gone 400 years without a serious war on its territory.

You mean besides the Blitz?

It reminds me of the other recent case involving one of the founders of The Pirate Bay. He is currently in solitary confinement in a Swedish jail. However a commenter on Slashdot who has actually been held under the same conditions described them as being radically different to what one thinks of when considering US style solitary confinement. They are actually kept in very good conditions, with entertainment, TV, radio, reading material etc, it’s not the borderline sensory deprivation that the US and many other countries use. I’m still not a fan of it, but it isn’t what most people think of when they hear “solitary confinement”.

Out of curiosity, is it standard practice in Russia that all prisoners are sent to different parts of the country? Here it is generally the case that prisoners are housed as near to their homes and families as possible, assuming there is capacity. Are there no prisons in or near Moscow?

America’s Pussy Riot

Where’s Madonna when you need her…….

Unfortunately, Russia’s post-Soviet leadership has, so far, entirely lacked such a (admittedly uncommon) breed of individuals, while the West, forgetting the lessons of WWII, ignored the other path to a successful transition by choosing to gloat instead of lending a helping hand early on. As a result, Russia’s present-day power structures have become, entrenched, unchecked, an extractive. Historically, that has always ended in stagnation, collapse, or revolution. Speaking of revolutions, it is impossible for one to occur within a freely-informed population without significant genuine grass-roots support.

That is all.

Yes, internalising the propaganda of your own country makes for more a more relaxed mind all right. Have you forgotten the Birmingham Six, Guildford Four, and the torture of Irish republican prisoners generally? Are you familiar with with house arrest orders of the Home Secretary? Do you have any clue what the British military were doing in Iraq? What do you think happens to a captured Taliban fighter?

Britain has gone 400 years without a serious war on its territory. The United States is essentially uninvadable. This provides a good basis for developing liberal values in state institutions since there is nothing like a war to inculcate government paranoia.

Russia was devastated repeatedly in the 20th century. No society is going to be a liberal beacon in that context. But it is likely to develop in that direction over the next century. In the meantime, western attempts to encourage a colour revolution with absurd promotion of liberal oppositions (never the more deeply rooted Communists of course!), and even absurder levels of publicity for Pussy Riot retard rather than help that evolution.

If they were kept under particularly brutal house arrest, would that be a home Perm?

Sorry, I’ll get my coat.

(I really like that painting btw.)

Not that it’s perfect, but we don’t send people to secret hard labour camps or regularly stick people in solitary for months or years at a time.

Really? Don’t the Russian authorities and KGBs or whoever they are now, have anything better to do?

Reminds me of an ancient Doonesbury strip.  “Dear Russkies, Please back off.   Love, Zonker.