Monthly Archives: April 2022

Beijing [China], April 6 (ANI): Since the COVID-19 pandemic began in early 2020, the Chinese government has used various means to capture more than 2,500 fugitives from overseas and compel them to return to China under a state-sanctioned abduction program, according to the report.

Since the Chinese Communist Party launched Operation Fox Hunt in 2014, followed by Operation Sky Net in 2015, over 10,000 individuals have been extradited to China.

The Washington Times reported that China is using compulsion and illegal means to extradite unwilling individuals as case studies and reports issued by Safeguard Defenders expose the scope of the Chinese governments transnational oppression and describe Chinas repeated violations of sovereignty of foreign nations.

According to a recent media report, a Chinese man Sun Hoi Ying charged in the US over Beijings Fox Hunt for overseas fugitives.

Sun, accused of enlisting others, including a US law enforcement officer, to spy on and blackmail his victims, allegedly targeted about 35 overseas Chinese who were in trouble at home, seeking to pressure them to return to China, reported The Washington Times.

While, on January 18, a human rights NGO Safeguard Defenders published a report highlighting organized and secretive methods used by the Chinese government to compel refugees to backpedal to China from overseas.

The report uses the term involuntary return to refer to the fact that the Chinese government uses compulsion and illegal means to extradite unwilling individuals.

The Washington Times said that case studies and reports issued by Safeguard Defenders expose the scope of the Chinese governments transnational oppression and describe Chinas repeated violations of the sovereignty of foreign nations.

Since Xi Jinping became president in 2013, the monitoring operation has undergone multiple revisions. Operation Fox Hunt was launched by the Ministry of Public Security in June 2014 to trace individuals who alleged to be involved in economic crimes. The programs aim is to extend Xis anti-corruption campaign overseas.

In 2015, China launched Operation Sky Net under the auspices of the Supreme Peoples Procuratorate Chinas highest national agency responsible for legal prosecution and investigation. It was later consolidated with Operation Fox Hunt, and also includes other significant operations synchronized by state and party agencies, the US-based media outlet said.

Moreover, in 2018, Operation Sky Net was undertaken by the National Supervisory Commission, a state agency launched to expand the powers of the CCPs internal anti-corruption body, the Central Commission for Discipline Inspection, it added. (ANI)

This report is auto-generated from ANI news service. ThePrint holds no responsibility for its content.

Excerpt from:

Chinese authorities coerced over 10,000 fugitives to return from abroad - ThePrint

Its been clear for a long time now that masks are more than just face coverings. They are a flashpoint in the culture war, with those on one side seeing them as symbolic of a social obligation to protect our fellow citizens as well as ourselves and those on the other side seeing them as symbols of government oppression, a violation of individual freedom and God given rights. I see them simply as a symbol of common sense.

After having opted out of our annual two-month ski trip to the Berkshires last season, we decided, despite the omicron surge, to risk it this year. Non-skiers cannot imagine how joyful it is to fly down the flanks of beauteous mountains surrounded by a wonderland of ice-encrusted trees that glitter like thousands of huge diamond brooches. How peaceful it is to experience the vastness of wilderness amid a silence that is broken only by the rush of wind past helmets and the scritch of skis on icy snow.

A bonus was the added pleasure of reuniting with old friends with whom we could ride the lifts through crisp, clean air without fear of infection. It was the most socialization we have had in a long time, the first time in two years we felt fully alive, connected and free of anxiety.

We strictly complied with the conditions we had imposed on ourselves prior to the trip. That meant avoiding crowded public spaces. We limited indoor time to the sparsely occupied locker room where we changed in and out of our boots, to the supermarket we visited early Sunday mornings when it was devoid of customers and to a sparsely populated wine store with a mask policy. We sacrificed precious ski days on weekends and holidays when the mountain is always mobbed. The rest of the time we ensconced ourselves in splendid isolation in our rented flat where we prepared every single meal, never setting foot in a restaurant. Most importantly, when unavoidably indoors, we always, always masked.

As the surge appeared to wane, people became more cavalier about precautions. Even those in our merry band gathered at the bar after skiing. But we limited our apres-ski to a few outdoor lunches with them. Its understandable people feel at the end of their ropes with restrictions. So do we. We miss dining out, attending theaters and joining friends in their homes, but we intend to adhere to precautions as long as reality and common sense dictate. The sad reality is that just as, once again, government and the CDC are endorsing letting our guards down, a new surge is building in Europe and probably, pushed along by the annual spring break madness, will make its way across the pond just as the boosters are losing their protective edge. While COVID is far from over, it has ceased to be the only reason we intend to continue masking and some of the other precautions we have embraced during its unwelcome stay.

Interestingly, after all these months we have become accustomed to masks. We dont love wearing them, but unlike some right-wing types, we do not remotely feel like we are being rounded up and transported to the gas chambers when we put them on. The way we see it, insistence on individual rights, when exercised without regard for the welfare of others, becomes its own form of tyranny, anarchy actually, and a sign of a selfish, if not outright antisocial, personality. Even more so, a sign of foolhardiness.

We have come to understand why many people in other countries had been routinely masking in public long before COVID came along. Over the time we have employed masks, we have had nary a sniffle. This in contrast to two out of the half dozen ski trips we took after moving south, which were cut short by severe respiratory infections despite our having had flu shots.

Its likely we will resume some of the activities we have eschewed during the pandemic once it truly passes. Whenever that is. But we intend to avoid crowded indoor gatherings and continue to use masks when we have to be indoors with the general public for a while yet. Maybe permanently.

Certainly some people will look askance at us for doing so, maybe even be angry and berate us, but we hope that others, when asked the question, Who was that masked man, anyway? will reply, Who knows? But he sure must be one smart hombre.

Norman Dovberg is a former resident of the Capital Region now living in Virginia.

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Mask appeal for respect of others - Times Union

New EU and US sanctions have targeted Vladimir Putin's daughters as the West seeks to punish Russia further for the invasion of Ukraine. The Russian leaders closest family members have been added to what is a growing list of restrictions. While Western allies move to pressure Putin from the outside, the Russian president is doing everything in his power to quash any opposition to his invasion within Russia. Police have detained thousands of protesters across Russia, and media in the country has been further restricted by the Kremlin.

Yuri Felshtinsky, an expert on Russia and an enemy of Putin's, told The Sun in February that the Russian President fears being killed like Libyan dictator Colonel Gaddafi.

It has been reported that he has watched obsessively videos of Colonel Gaddafi being brutally murdered after he was cornered by a mob in 2011.

Mr Felshtinsky argued that Putin will have to use more authoritarian measures in order to prevent his demise.

He said: Correct this he knows.

Hes bright enough to know that under normal rules, his system of government cannot exist. Hes not an idealist.

He knows theres no way he can survive unless he continues to oppress.

The lesson that Putin will have learnt after the recent events is that he should control more and that he should repress more. And thats what we will see.

Mr Felshtinsky is a respected academic, and also helped Russian dissident Alexander Litvinenko escape to the UK where he was later murdered, likely by Russian FSB agents, according to a report into his death.

He believes a similar fate awaits Alexei Navalny, the most prominent opposition figure in Russia who was sentenced to nine more years in prison after being found guilty of large-scale fraud and contempt by a Russian court earlier this year.

Mr Navalny dismissed the latest criminal case against him as politically motivated and pleaded not guilty.

After the sentencing, he tweeted a quote from the US television series The Wire.

He said: Nine years. Well, as the characters of my favourite TV series The Wire used to say: You only do two days. Thats the day you go in and the day you come out.

READ MORE:'Rude' EU slammed by China over 'dialogue of the deaf' attack

It was claimed last month that Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has survived three assassination attempts.

Mr Zelensky's adviser said: Our foreign partners are talking about two or three attempts. I believe that there were more than a dozen such attempts.

We have a very powerful network of intelligence and counterintelligence, they track it all.

Western intelligence is right to say that the main target for [Vladimir] Putin was Mr Zelensky in terms of attacking the government quarter and trying to kill the countrys key manager.

Prior to this, The Times reported that Mr Zelensky survived three assassination attempts made by Kremlin-backed Wagner mercenary group and Chechen special forces.

Link:

Putin attempting to avoid death by using oppression: Knows he cant survive - Express

Iain Anderson's letter hits out at the Prime Minister for the "deeply damaging" move to exclude trans people from protection

The UKs LGBT business champion has resigned with a heavy heart over the Governments profoundly shocking position on banning conversion therapy for transgender people.

Iain Anderson said trust and belief in the Governments commitment to LGBT rights has been damaged, after a series of U-turns on plans to introduce legislation to ban conversion therapy.

He is the latest in a series of high-profile individuals and groups to hit out at the Government, with at least 100 organisations pulling out of its forthcoming landmark LGBT conference.

More than 80 LGBT groups and more than 20 HIV groups have said they will not take part in the Safe To Be Me conference, scheduled for June, unless Boris Johnson reverts to his promise for a trans-inclusive ban on conversion therapy.

Last week it was initially announced that ministers were scrapping plans to ban the practice, sparking a furious backlash.

A Government spokesman confirmed that they were looking instead at ways of preventing it through existing law and other non-legislative measures.

Iain Anderson Gov.uk

Prime Minister Boris Johnson Hannah Mckay

Within hours the PM was said to have changed his mind and a senior Government source was quoted as saying legislation would be introduced.

The Government now says it is committed to a legislative ban, but that separate work is required to consider the issue of transgender conversion therapy further.

When announcing the initial consultation into the conversion therapy ban, the Government had said the protections would cover people in terms of their sexual orientation and gender identity.

Mr Anderson said it had been the honour of his life to serve as the UKs first LGBT business champion, but felt he had no choice but to resign.

In a letter to Mr Johnson shared on Twitter he wrote: As a young gay man I lived through fear and oppression under the backdrop of Section 28.

I could never have dreamt then that a government any government would appoint an LGBT champion later in my lifetime.

However the recent leaking of a plan to drop the Governments flagship legislation protecting LGBT people from conversion therapy was devastating. Conversion therapy is abhorrent.

Only hours later to see this plan retracted but briefing take place that trans people would be excluded from the legislation and therefore not have the same immediate protections from this practice was deeply damaging to my work.

Mr Anderson added that it was profoundly shocking that the Government had backtracked on protection for transgender people during the same week that the first trans MP felt able to share his journey.

Jamie Wallis, Conservative MP for Bridgend, last week came out as trans in a highly personal statement.

Posting on Twitter on Monday, the 37-year-old rallied against ministers plans to limit a ban on conversion therapy for gay people.

He said it was wrong to exclude protections for a whole group of people from a practice described as abhorrent.

The backbencher argued that it would be a broken promise to allow conversion therapy to be banned, but for it not to apply to trans people.

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LGBT business champion resigns from Government with scathing letter on conversion therapy - GB News

Govt will return land to Kashmiri Pandits

New Delhi, April 6 (UNI) The government is capable of returning the land forcibly taken away from Kashmiri Pandits, Minister of State for Home Affairs Nityanand Rai told the Rajya Sabha on Wednesday. "Those who left the Kashmir Valley due to oppression... whose land has been forcibly taken away, the government, under the leadership of Prime Minister (Narendra) Modi, is quite capable of ensuring that the land is returned to them." He said the properties of 610 applicants have so far been returned in Jammu and Kashmir. "The land of all those whose complaints are found to be correct will be returned one by one," Rai said. The Minister said the government has taken several steps to improve road connectivity in Jammu and Kashmir. He said that the government has fast tracked all the under-construction hydel projects and concrete steps have been taken to complete the projects in a time-bound manner. UNI ASU MR

The rest is here:

Govt will return land to Kashmiri Pandits - United News of India

War is not only about the killing of innocent people; it also involves big business. Russia's invasion of Ukraine illustrates the knock-on effects of war with the unprecedented social, cultural, political and sporting isolation of the Russian people.

The political establishment in Moscow headed by President Vladimir Putin and his cronies, including the oligarchs, is under attack. The Russian oligarchs have for many years stolen wealth which is then enjoyed in Europe and America. So why is action only being taken now?

I grew up in apartheid South Africa and was influenced by the antiracist activism of Hassan Howa, who coined the phrase "There can be no normal sports in an abnormal society". I would paraphrase Howa by saying that there can be no normal sport in an abnormal world. Big money rules in all sports, it seems, and politics is no longer a stranger to sport, as many sports' governing bodies once insisted it should be.

Top tennis player Daniil Medvedev is a Russian citizen. He has been pressured by the British government and establishment to denounce Putin following the invasion of Ukraine if he wants to play at Wimbledon this year. Medvedev has said repeatedly that he wants to "promote peace" but this is not enough for Boris Johnson and his cronies. Former MP George Galloway called this a crime, as no other players of any sport have been asked to condemn their own governments. He pointed out that this was not demanded of American and British sportsmen and women whose governments, in violation of international law, invaded Iraq in 2003 and "killed millions of Iraqis".

This is an example of the double standards and hypocrisy which has been exposed by events in Ukraine. Of course there has been warm-hearted support from ordinary people for the victims of aggression in Ukraine. At an official and government level, though, the hypocrisy is brazen.

Staying with sport, look at the European governing body for football, UEFA, and the English Premier League and Spain's La Liga, both of which have global TV coverage. English football clubs played and wore Ukrainian colours on one weekend, and yet players and fans elsewhere have been censured by UEFA and the world governing body FIFA when they have displayed support for the Palestinian victims of Israeli aggression and occupation.

The Real Madrid v Barcelona match carried the slogan "Stop Invasion", and yet neither team had any qualms about playing in Saudi Arabia in January, earning huge amounts while turning a blind eye to the killing of hundreds of thousands of Yemeni citizens by the Saudi-led coalition. Amnesty International called out this collaboration between the Spanish Football Association and the regime in Riyadh as "whitewashing" the image of the Saudi authorities, but UEFA, FIFA and other sporting bodies, as well as political leaders, were silent. Now they have found their voice, apparently because Ukrainians are more deserving victims of war than other people. And they have acted swiftly.

OPINION: Sport and politics do mix, as FIFA's hypocrisy demonstrates

Within record time of the invasion on 24 February, Russian athletes were expelled from almost all sports tournaments. Even judoka Putin was stripped of his honorary status by the sport's governing body. The International Tennis Federation (ITF) released a statement on 1 March announcing "the immediate suspension of the Russian Tennis Federation (RTF)". Here in South Africa, Russia was banned from the FIH Hockey Women's Junior World Cup taking place now in Potchefstroom.

Other sports followed suit, including archery, badminton, baseball, taekwondo, triathlon and volleyball. FIFA stopped Russia's Gazprom sponsorship of the UEFA Champions League. Europeans, meanwhile, continue to obtain gas and oil from Russia. Russian footballers were not so lucky when they were unable to play against Poland in a FIFA World Cup qualifying playoff match, killing any hopes of getting to the finals in Qatar later this year.

It is a clich that sport and media businesses are joined at the hip, but in the modern era one cannot survive without the other. Sports are marketing tools for all kinds of products, with media advertising and sponsorship dominating. The general convention prior to the Russian invasion of Ukraine was for sport to stay away from politics and causes that would damage the possibility of making money. Major media outlets linked to sport have, though, been showing their pro-Ukraine bias openly. Even the right of resistance has been espoused for Ukrainians, while the same media condemn legitimate Palestinian resistance as "terrorism".

OPINION: Russia's war in Ukraine even exposes football's hypocrisy

After South Africa's SAfm sports news carried an item about a former Ukrainian tennis player being trained to shoot "I can hit the head three out of five times from 25 metres in practice," boasted Alexandr Dolgopolov I called in and asked the presenter if this right to resist, which I support, and publicity was only afforded to Ukrainians. Would a similar item about a Palestinian athlete being trained to resist Israeli occupation a right enshrined in international law be broadcast, or would the station pass on such a news item, fearing a backlash from a well-known lobby group?

In a similar vein, CNN carried the impassioned statement by Ukrainian tennis star Elina Svitolina, who told the world on air that, "All prize money I win at the Monterrey Open will go to the Ukrainian army."

Generally speaking, dissenting voices have been struggling to be heard. Although Turkey, the Muslim nation that is a NATO member, is supporting Ukrainian victims of war, former international footballer Aykut Demir, the captain and centre back of BB Erzurumspor, which competes in the top tier of Turkish football, declined to wear a shirt denouncing the Russian invasion. His reason was simple: the lack of attention paid to the struggles in the Middle East, in particular the war in Yemen, where a UN report published last year said that almost 380,000 children, women and men had been killed; millions have been displaced.

Russian oligarchs are also linked to major sports. In 2019, Forbes reported that Roman Abramovich's net worth was approximately $12.9 billion. He is said to be linked to Vladimir Putin. He bought English football club Chelsea in 2003, since when it has won 18 trophies, including two Champions League titles, five Premier League championships, and most recently the 2022 Club World Cup.

The British government has sanctioned Abramovich and frozen his ownership of Chelsea FC, but he still has his supporters. Israel's chief Ashkenazi Rabbi David Lau and the Director Sheba Medical Centre, Yitshak Kreiss, have urged the US not to impose sanctions on the oligarch because he is a major donor to Zionist causes. According to David Klion, the editor of Jewish Currents, this amounts to over half a billion dollars given to various Jewish organisations and causes.

Abramovich has Israeli citizenship and is said to be the occupation state's second richest man. Klion ended his article headlined "Our oligarch" by quoting a 2020 BBC Arabic investigation, which revealed that, "Abramovich has used front companies registered in the British Virgin Islands to donate more than $100 million to a right-wing Israeli organisation called the Ir David Foundation, commonly known as Elad." This organisation has worked from the 1980s to move Jewish settlers into occupied East Jerusalem. It also controls "an archaeological park and major tourist site called City of David, which it has leveraged in its efforts to 'Judaise' the area, including by seizing Palestinian homes in the surrounding neighbourhood of Silwan and digging under some to make them uninhabitable." Elad, apparently, did not respond to Klion's request for a comment.

Such is the calibre of a major figure in the English Premier League, but no sanctions have ever been imposed by either the League or the British government for Abramovich's involvement in the funding of illegal Israeli settlement projects. Only for being Russian and a crony of Vladimir Putin.

The House of Saud, meanwhile, went about its own bloody business while all of this has been going on, executing 81 people in a single day on 12 March. The Saudi Public Investment Fund, remember, was given the go ahead by the English Premier League last year to buy an 80 per cent stake in Newcastle United Football Club. No action has been taken by UEFA against the team or players for the latest mass execution by the Saudi government. According to one newspaper, "[Newcastle coach] Eddie Howe has revealed he is 'well aware' of the mass executions taking place in Saudi Arabia." That's it.

So when UEFA removed Spartak Moscow from the Europa League in response to Russian aggression and moved the final of the Champions League away from St Petersburg, the governing body was not playing ball; this was hypocritical politics.

None of this is new, though. The former captain of the Egyptian national football team, Mohamed Aboutrika, was given a yellow card in 2009 for displaying a t-shirt with "Sympathise with Gaza" written in Arabic and English when he scored a goal. The referee was abiding by the rules of the game, which prohibit religious and political slogans during matches, although this was a call for human solidarity. Aboutrika was duly sanctioned by FIFA.

In contrast, the Confederation of African Football (CAF) and FIFA did nothing to Ghanian footballer John Paintsil for waving the Israeli flag after a goal scored by a teammate against Czech Republic in the 2006 World Cup. This was blatant propaganda, as Israel did not qualify for the tournament.

That was then, this is now. Solidarity in sport is acceptable, it seems, as long as the "right" people and cause are being supported.

"Nobody should ever accept any killings in the world, any oppression," said Egypt's Ali Amr Farag recently. "But we've never been allowed to speak about politics in sports, but all of a sudden now it's allowed. So, now that we're allowed, I hope that people also look at the oppression everywhere in the world."

"I mean, the Palestinians have been going through that for the past 74 years and, well, I guess because it doesn't fit the narrative of the media of the west, we couldn't talk about it. But now that we can talk about Ukraine, we can talk about Palestinians. So please keep that in mind."

The current world squash champion's comment was made after a match, and his words have been expunged from the official records. He was backing the wrong side in a world dominated by hypocrisy. Nevertheless, he joins hundreds of top sportsmen and women who have stood up against injustice when it was neither fashionable nor easy. There can be no normal sport in an abnormal world.

The views expressed in this article belong to the author and do not necessarily reflect the editorial policy of Middle East Monitor.

Read more here:

There can be no normal sport in an abnormal world - Middle East Monitor

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In the weeks since Russia invaded Ukraine, I've been in contact with my immediate family a lot more often. Beyond exchanging updates on our family members scattered throughout the country, I've also listened to more stories about their former life in Ukraine during the Soviet Union.

While I've heard about my parents' and grandparents' lives in the USSR before incomprehensible tales of censorship and corruption it's become more important than ever for me to really know my family history, especially in the context of understanding the brutality that Ukraine is facing from Russia right now.

It's why I finally decided to pick up a book I've always had on my reading list: "The Gulag Archipelago."

Written by Nobel Prize-winning Russian writer Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn, "The Gulag Archipelago" is a nonfiction account of his experience being imprisoned within the Soviet prison camp system, weaving in stories of other prisoners and Russian political history starting from the Bolshevik revolution in 1917.

Originally a three-book series (I read the abridged version), "The Gulag Archipelago" was considered groundbreaking when it was first published in France in 1973, shedding light on a host of atrocities that thrived in secrecy and darkness. According to "The New Yorker" journalist David Remnick, "it is impossible to name a book that had a greater effect on the political and moral consciousness of the late 20th century" and it was named the best nonfiction book of the 20th century by TIME magazine in 1999.

With Soviet history referenced so often in the news right now, reading this book has given me a greater context for understanding the Russian invasion of Ukraine, as well as my family's past.

In "The Gulag Archipelago," Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn, who was arrested in 1945 for criticizing Stalin in private letters to a friend, describes his 8-year sentence in various Gulag work camps. He also shares countless anecdotes of other prisoners, the technical ways the Gulag system worked, and the Stalin-era show trials. While this wasn't the only written account of Gulag life, it was the first to go into this level of detail.

As you'll quickly learn from reading this book, Soviet labor camps were meant to be secretive. Many arrests happened in the middle of the night to avoid witnesses or protests, popular forms of torture left no physical marks, and prisoners were threatened into pretending they were well-fed and taken care of in the presence of Western journalists.

As a result, it's hard to know the full scope of these crimes to this day, historians can't confirm how many millions were killed in the Gulag alone. While I wouldn't put this in the same category as a traditional history book (some figures are disputed), it feels like a multi-dimensional account of how these oppressive tactics worked, whether people were dragged to prison camps or terrified they'd be next.

Beyond how thorough Solzhenitsyn is in describing Gulag life and broader Soviet society, he's also just a phenomenal writer along with "The Gulag Archipelago," his experiences inspired several works of fiction as well, including "In the First Circle" and "One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich."

Aside from including many shocking anecdotes, Solzhenitsyn is also sarcastic and acerbic throughout, highlighting the endless irony of a government claiming to liberate people by jailing and murdering millions instead. (A concept that's not entirely unfamiliar in today's landscape.)

What I find most powerful is how Solzhenitsyn's writing style directly rebels against the oppressive society it was born in: As people were killed en masse and made to disappear, he mentions specific names, quotes, and stories. In describing a system that was calculating and mercilessly indifferent, he is impassioned from beginning to end.

Throughout the book, I saw disturbing parallels to what is happening today, from how political prisoners are treated in Russia to the ruthlessness of Russia's attacks on Ukraine. It adds another layer to the anguish Ukrainians and vocally anti-war Russians are feeling right now that this is essentially repeated history.

Solzhenitsyn also criticizes complacency in both Russia and the West, arguing that "we didn't love freedom enough" to have let the Gulag system exist. He laments that those responsible for the executions and imprisonments of millions of people never faced any consequences and continued to live freely in Russia, and he also critiques the West for not doing more to help according to him, people living under the USSR during WWII hoped they would be saved from Soviet labor camps the same way civilians were liberated from the Nazis.

On a macro scale, many of the points Solzhenitsyn makes can apply to oppression and totalitarianism in general. One such universally applicable quote, "Unlimited power in the hands of limited people always leads to cruelty," was made in reference to Gulag guards being wholly disinterested in any kind of personal growth.

The most prominent theme of the book, though, is how anyone can be brainwashed into committing unforgivable crimes if they unquestioningly follow an ideology that "The line dividing good and evil cuts through the heart of every human being."

Particularly in today's context, his words hold a sense of urgency.

Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn's "The Gulag Archipelago" not only provides a crucial first-person perspective but also important takeaways for future generations to learn from.

Like many political figures, Solzhenitsyn held some controversial views, especially pertaining to Ukraine's sovereignty, before his death in 2008. I vehemently disagree with him on this, but if there's one concept this book instilled in me, it's the importance of seeing people as people and not walking collections of perfectly aligned or immutable views.

Beyond that, Solzhenitsyn's words have given me a place for my anger to rest. As a Ukrainian-American, I was drawn to this book right now precisely because it isn't diplomatic or polite it's a sharp rebuke of inaction, of continuing to prioritize comfort over justice.

To me, the most chilling part of "The Gulag Archipelago" isn't the laundry list of tortures inflicted by the Russian government or the unimaginable volume of casualties it produced: It's that it's happening again.

Do we love freedom enough to do more this time?

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'The Gulag Archipelago' review: a parallel to the war in Ukraine - Business Insider

After the Enforcement Directorate (ED) provisionally attached assets worth Rs 11.15 crore of three persons, including Shiv Sena leader Sanjay Rauts wife Varsha, Raut on Tuesday said that the attached properties have been bought with his hard-earned money and that neither he nor Sena will bow down.

Leaders of Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA) coalition stood behind Raut, terming the ED action as political vendetta.

With such actions, neither Sanjay Raut nor Shiv Sena will bow down. A few months ago, men from BJP came to my house in Delhi seeking help in overthrowing the Maharashtra government and threatened me saying that I will have to face a lot of difficulties. Since I refused to cooperate with them, action is being taken against me, Raut told mediapersons.

Alleging that the investigative machinery is working under political pressure, he added, I have bought the flat and some land parcels with our hard-earned money. Even if one rupee has come into our account through money laundering and we have bought a property with it, we are ready to donate all properties to the BJP. Raut said he was not afraid of anyone and would never kneel before anyone. It is a coincidence that the ED action come after the Maharashtra government announced setting up of a SIT to probe my complaint against the ED officials.

He added that he had received calls from NCP chief Sharad Pawar and Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray, expressing concern.

Tourism Minister and Sena leader Aaditya Thackeray termed the ED action as vindictive politics. It is clear that action is being taken for political purposes. Whatever is happening in the country is neither democracy nor politics but it is the politics of oppression, he told mediapersons.

Home Minister Dilip Walse Patil added, There is definitely political vendetta The action was taken without issuing any notice to him (Raut) and conducting any probe. Attempts are being made at all levels to destabilise the MVA government, but the government is stable and there is no threat to it. The MVA government will complete its five-year term.

Irrigation Minister and NCP leader Jayant Patil said the ED action was an attempt to pressurise Raut and to discredit the government and people associated with it. Two days ago, the Supreme Court also questioned the actions of the ED. Therefore, it is well known that investigative agencies are being misused. Attempts are being made to discredit the government and those associated with it. The central investigative agencies are being used to create suspicion about it.

State Congress president Nana Patole alleged that central agencies are being widely misused to silence the voice of the Opposition. The action against Raut is part of the same pressure tactic but MVA is not afraid of such actions. We will face it together, he said.

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Properties bought with hard-earned money, wont bow down: Sanjay Raut - The Indian Express