Until recently, Syrian President Bashar Assad was not open much for communication with journalists. Representatives of many leading TV channels in the world tried to have an interview with the Syrian leader. Foreign reporters complained that they had to wait for the answer for months. However, Pravda.Ru correspondents found out that it was not hard to have a meeting with the Syrian president.

It is enough to fly to Damascus. The Syrians did not even search the correspondent of the Russian media outlet prior to the meeting. The Syrian president sat down for an interview with Pravda.Ru at his residence in Damascus, the capital of Syria.

"Until recently, you were considered a respectable leader in the West. Why do you think the situation has changed so much?"

The Western media have been paying a lot of attention to the Russian parliamentary elections during the recent days. Some of the publications about the post-election events in Moscow and other Russian cities are attention-catchy indeed.

Britain's The Guardian is known for its anti-Russian publications. Here is what the newspaper's respectable David Hearst wrote in his piece of work from December 6th under the headline "Russia election aftermath is no Tahrir Square moment."

"Despite having much in common with the Arab spring, the Russian protest movement is too diverse and politically passive," Hearst wrote commenting the Monday demonstration in Moscow. "On the face of it, Putin's Russia shares some of the ingredients of Ben Ali's Tunisia or Hosni Mubarak's Egypt: a disenfranchised but educated youth, an oppositional internet and social media, a corrupt state run as a kleptocracy by a small elite, and the impossibilty of real political change. So was the Duma election a tipping point, one of those moments where a repressed political opposition comes out onto the streets and stays there? The short answer is no," the author of the article said.

Tomorrow the heroes will stay home

The west, and particularly the United States, are not in the position to criticise the Russian election process, nor are they in a position to criticise the ever popular leader, Vladimir Putin. It is well known that what makes Vladimir Putin so supremely electable are all of his great deeds in restoring Russia to a decent place in the world, with much worldwide respect, fiscally sound and responsible, strong and stable.

Who can compete with that in the bankrupt, hypocritical, international law breaking, war mongering west where you will find no stronger, more determined supporters of terrorism? Can even one leader be found among the lot of them that actually did something for the people in their own country?

Absolutely not.

Russia is a country with its own time honored traditions, a source of much pride for every Russian citizen. The history, the culture and beauty have no rivals anywhere.

The Russian Federation does not need lessons on how to conduct its elections, much less does it need lessons from the United States of America and far less still from a female who waltzes off an aircraft to the sound of a band and claims she was entering a war zone. Suppose Hillary "War Zone" Clinton stuck her nose into her own affairs?

As predicted in this column a week ago before the Russian Parliamentary elections, the ruling party, Edinaya Rossiya, or United Russia, won the election by far, being the most voted party, having won the most seats and being far, far ahead of the second most popular party, the Communists. Let the figures speak for themselves.



United Russia won 238 of the 450 seats in the DUMA (Parliament), giving it a majority over the opposition parties (Communists, 92; Just Russia, 64 and Liberal Democratic Party, 56. Yabloko, Patriots of Russia and Right Cause did not elect any members). United Russia got 52.88% of the seat composition in the Duma, against 20.46% for the Communists, 14.21% for Just Russia, 12.45% for the Liberal Democratic Party and zero per cent for the other contenders. United Russia received 32,331,244 votes, against 12,594,232 for the Communists, 8,689,147 for Just Russia, 7,659,657 for the Liberal Democrats, 2,249,990 for Yabloko, 638,735 for the Patriots of Russia and 392,507 for the Right Cause. United Russia garnered just under 50% of the vote, the second most voted party, the Communists, less than 20%. Not bad in my book...

The recent "report" of the Commission of inquiry on Syria by the UN Human Rights Council stands for its bombastic accusations against the Syrian government, but entirely omitted to present material evidence, or evidence corroborating the charges. It is based upon testimony from unidentified, unqualified people. The "investigative" method used is no different than the "cover" provided by the western corporate media wtih "information" that is without confirmation as to its truthfulness, yet repeated to exhaustion nevertheless.

"LOW STANDARD"

In the preamble to the "report" of the commission headed by the Brazilian, Paulo Sergio Pinheiro, (photo) it says that the "the standard of proof has 'reasonable suspicion'" and recognizes that this is "a lower standard of evidence than that used in criminal proceedings."