The right-wing regime currently strangling the Labour party has evidently decided that lying about Corbyn’s record on Russia is a useful next step in its smear campaign against the former Labour leader, whom it hopes to remove from Parliament altogether at the next election – a few extra sticks to shore up the determination to get rid of him are always welcome in right-wing minds.
But the latest lies recklessly put Corbyn’s life in danger yet again. Right-wingers have assaulted Corbyn and one who murdered a Muslim man had hoped to include Corbyn in the death toll – but ‘Nu-Labour’ has recklessly been inciting the extremists again by claiming that Corbyn was soft on Russia and that purely by being against war, he is ‘Putin’s mouthpiece’.
Here’s Jeremy Corbyn’s real record on Russia and Vladimir Putin:
- 2001: condemns Putin’s actions in Chechnya
- 2010: accuses Putin of rigging elections and calls for asset freeze
- 2012: called for a UK version of the US Magnitsky Act imposing sanctions on Russia
- 2014: calls for Russian arms corporations to be barred from the UK
- 2016: accuses Putin of war crimes in Syria
- 2019: condemns Russian influence in UK politics and calls for release of Russia report on that influence, which the Tories withheld
- 2022: Corbyn condemns the Russian invasion of Ukraine
In the construction of a global alliance against terrorism, we should think a little more carefully about the human rights records and perceptions of some of the countries that are involved.
When the Prime Minister travels to Moscow – I imagine that he is already on his way there – and meets President Putin this evening, I hope that he will convey the condemnation of millions of people around the world of the activities of the Russian army in Chechnya and of what it is doing to ordinary people there.
When images of what is happening are translated into other parts of the world, many people are horrified, just as we are horrified by what happened to the World Trade Centre and the Pentagon on 11 September.
If we are serious about the rule of law and human rights, we must be very careful to condemn abuses of human rights, whoever commits them, whoever they are committed against and however uncomfortable or inconvenient it is for us to do so. If we are not consistent, we will, understandably, receive the charge of hypocrisy.
Jeremy Corbyn on Vladimir Putin, 2001
While Corbyn has consistently taken a stand against Russia and called for international law to be enforced, both the Tories and the Labour right have taken money from Russian donors or donors with business links to Russia. And of course, Peter Mandelson’s extensive links to Russia and Putin are a matter of record.
Yet with the collusion of the Establishment media, it is Corbyn who is being put at risk while his enemies smear with abandon and impunity.
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