Please Help Vladimir Bukovsky: Russian Freedom Fighter
by meep
There’s a long explanation here and the fundraiser is here, but I want to put a little more background on this.
Vladimir Bukovsky was a prominent Soviet dissident back in the day, the primary person to raise the lid on the abuse of psychiatric diagnoses by the Soviet Union as their innovative way to punish dissidents. Vladimir himself spent 12 years total imprisoned by the Soviet Union before getting booted out to Switzerland, and he eventually moved to England.
A quote from the wiki article:
British and European psychiatrists assessing the documents on psychiatric abuse released by Bukovsky characterized him in 1971: “The information we have about [Vladimir Bukovsky] suggests that he is the sort of person who might be embarrassing to authorities in any country because he seems unwilling to compromise for convenience and personal comfort, and believes in saying what he thinks in situations which he clearly knows could endanger him. But such people often have much to contribute, and deserve considerable respect.”[c 14]
Perhaps you can see why I find him admirable.
Even after the Soviet Union fell, Vladimir has given the Putin regime a rough time.
Bukovsky was among the first 34 signatories of “Putin must go”, an online anti-Putin manifesto published on 10 March 2010. In May 2012 Vladimir Putin began his third term as president of the Russian Federation after serving four years as the country’s prime minister. The following year Bukovsky published a collection of interviews in Russia which described Putin and his team as The heirs of Lavrentiy Beria, Stalin’s last and most notorious secret police chief.
Putin doesn’t take this sort of thing lying down. Vladimir is seen as a threat to him and his regime, which is why he has been targeted for assassination — from the fundraiser: “A leaked FSB document reveals Bukovsky is 1 of 5 people targeted for assassination. 2 of these people are now dead; 1 has been poisoned.” You might remember Alexander Litvinenko, who was poisoned with radionuclide polonium-210. Litvenenko is one of the dead people.
Though Putin and his gang have not (yet) been successful in murdering Vladimir’s body, they want to murder his reputation.
From the fundraiser:
The difference: Bukovksy is fighting for his own freedom this time. The government of his new home – the Crown Prosecution Service – has brought (conveniently timed) charges of possessing child pornography just one month after Bukovsky’s testimony against the real crimes committed by Vladimir Putin himself.
The fundraiser is for Vladimir Bukovsky’s legal expenses. This character assassination needs to be made ineffective, and Bukovsky is suing. He needs to defend himself against the charges as well.
I’ve donated, and obviously, I’m supporting this campaign publicly.
Ways you can support:
1. Share my post or Elizabeth Childs’s post – facebook, livejournal, where ever
2. Share the fundraising page.
Please consider donating.
Thanks!
