JRL NEWSWATCH: “Extreme prejudice: how the Kremlin is cracking down on discontent” – The Times (UK)/Tom Parfitt

“… Incitement to commit a crime by undercover officers is illegal under Russian law. Critics say the defendants have been set up as hardened plotters intent on a nationwide revolt, when in fact they were simply a small group of disgruntled, naive, young people led on by a provocateur. The trial has a wider significance. … the most prominent of a burgeoning number of prosecutions for alleged extremism, including several in which the charge rests on the sharing on social media of memes, often innocuous, about political and social issues. … pos[ing] questions about how the Kremlin is tackling discontent at a tricky moment for … Putin. … his high approval rating has … dropped to its lowest level for four years … after announcing unpopular reforms that would raise the pension age. A new slide in the value of the rouble has not helped. …”

Click here for: “Extreme prejudice: how the Kremlin is cracking down on discontent; Social media satirists are facing criminal charges every bit as serious as those levied against anti-Putin protesters” – The Times (UK)/Tom Parfitt