“I want to thank our government for the enormous amount of work it does every day to discredit itself,”

Yegor Zhukov, a political science student at Russia’s prestigious Higher School of Economics, faces eight years in prison over controversial “mass unrest” charges.  The Kremlin’s critics think the charges are a scare tactic to crush Russia’s largest protests in years, set to continue for their fourth weekend on Saturday.

From a jail cell, Zhukov unleashed a broadside at the political system pieced together by Vladimir Putin, who was confirmed as prime minister for the first time 20 years ago on Friday.

“I want to thank our government for the enormous amount of work it does every day to discredit itself,” said

Zhukov by video link on Thursday.  “Truly it’s hard to find anyone who has done more to increase the numbers of the opposition than the Russian government.”   -Yegor Zhukov, who was detained during a recent protest for fair elections, appears in a Moscow court via video link. Photograph: Evgenia Novozhenina/Reuters      https://www.theguardian.com/world/2019/aug/16/putin-20-years-in-power-producing-new-generation-of-protesters

Twitt