I have not been to Russia, and I highly doubt that free speech thrives there, least of all under Putin.
But I was born and raised in this country, and I’ve watched Democrats and Republicans over the last few decades tear down the First Amendment and reduce it to a pale ghost of itself. All while destroying media as an institution, including with Clinton’s Telecom Act of 1996.
(And then we have the dictatorial way that GW Bush and President Obama hunted and murdered journalists, kept them jailed, tortured, etc., using 9/11 and the GWOT as a pretext for crushing speech.)
I am an American.
It is OUR fascists I fight first, before Russia’s — starting with the domestic despots who’ve been waging war on the rule of law and the democratic pillars of our society, committing genocide around the world, and destroying the planet’s life-giving systems.
Bottom line: EVEN IF everything the Russiagating Nazis have alleged is true, it doesn’t amount to a hill of beans compared to the wrecking ball that our own leaders have taken to our election systems in recent decades.
There is hardly a national election conducted anywhere in the world that is less rigged and corrupted than our own. Until we deal with the hijacking of our elections by fascist oligarchs, it’s the height of absurdity to point the finger at Moscow.
Outside of human rights, generally, and the destruction of the planet by fossil fuels, there is literally nothing Americans care less about than the integrity of our elections.