Crocus hall showcase of russian lies and tortures
On March 22 a terrorist attack occurred in Crocus city hall (Russia). More than 100 people were shot by terrorists.
There are two things I noticed, which might be obvious, but I still wanted to share those. First - Russia will lie about Ukraine, no matter what. Second - torture is normalized in Russia.
Russia will lie about Ukraine
Russia accused Ukraine of the attack. Even though terrorist organization “Islamic State” took the responsibility for attack. Even though terrorists were from Tajikistan - a friendly country to Russia, which is part of Russian-led NATO analogue CSTO. Even though terrorists initially wanted to escape through Russian-Belarus border, as confirmed by Belarus president Lukashenko. Russia still accused Ukraine.
Why so? Because Russia will lie about Ukraine no matter what. Terrorist attack on Crocus city hall is a pretty obvious lie, so not too many people believed that. But there are many other Russian lies about Ukraine, that many people continue believing, such as “Russians are oppressed in Ukraine”, “Ukraien bombed Donbas for eight years”, “Ukraine fights Christianity” or most notably “Ukraine is ruled by Nazis”.
Sometimes Russian lies about Ukraine are obvious, sometimes they are not. They are lies nevertheless.
Torture is normalized in Russia
Four suspects that Russia detained were tortured. And it was not even hidden. There was a widely circulated video on Russian social channels where one’s terrorist ear was cut off and he was forced to eat it. When suspects were brought to court, one of them still had a remnants of plastic bag around his neck and the other one was still unconscious. All of them looked bad. And Russians did not see anything bad about it. They were even proud about it. Tortures were evident. Mentally russians still live in Middle Ages.
I could go to talk about Universal Declaration of Human Rights, where at least two bullets were violated - the 5th (freedom from torture) and 11th (innocent until proven guilty). But that’s not what I actually wanted point out.
From the Russian point of view torturing the one you think is bad is normal. If Russians think that you’re a terrorist, you will be tortured. The thing is that Russians think that Ukrainians are Nazis - they believe all that crazy Russian propaganda. And Nazis are bad. Even worse than terrorist. So how do you think Russians will treat Ukrainians? There is a lot of evidence that Russians torture Ukrainian prisoners of war. Not only that - Russians torture Ukrainian civilians. They, Russians, think it’s a fine thing to do, because - remember - torture is normalized in Russia as long as they think the person they are torturing is bad.
Bucha massacre was not staged. Russians are totally capable of doing that. And they continue doing that on the occupied Ukrainian territories. When Ukraine wants to return its lands, it’s not only about lands - it’s also about people who live there. Because when they are under Russian control they are in danger of inhumane treatment.
Е. Н. Соложеницин (Eg0rk0t323), CC0, via Wikimedia Commons
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Crocus_City_Hall_attack