Russia and Amnesty International

Russia has now classified Amnesty International as an "Undesirable Organization." Fox News Radio's Jonathan Savage joins us with the details. 

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Jonathan Savage with Fox News Radio in London, before we
get to Amnesty International in Russia, paint the picture that
you just painted for us. We have a remarkable sunrise
this morning. But Jonathan Savage at the London Bureau is
looking toward Heathrow Airport this morning.

Speaker 2 (00:18):
Yeah, A veritable land of milk and honey is London today.
And no doubt is the sunny shining. The weather is
a lovely seventy degrees. There's a Version Atlantic plane heading
for San Francisco just taking off in my eyeline just
now into the clear, almost clear blue skies. And as
I said to you earlier, there's also chocolate in abundance,
so who can complain?

Speaker 1 (00:38):
Yeah, and chocolate is different in England than it is here.
So is ice cream. There seems to be some creamery
arness to it. I think that's a word. We'll come
back to that tape b table this discussion. Russian authorities

(00:59):
on Monday out lawd Amnesty International. So here's what they
do in Russia. If you get a bad review, you
accuse the accuser, right, So they are now an undesirable organization.
What is Amnesty International anyway? For those that may not
know well.

Speaker 2 (01:14):
It was founded in nineteen sixty one. It's got members
and supporters in over one hundred and fifty countries, and
what it does is campaign for human rights, including on
behalf of people it calls prisoners of conscious political prisoners,
people who are essentially jailed or persecuted for opposing authoritarian regimes.
But Anesty also has released reports on the war in Ukraine,

(01:37):
is accusing the Moscow regime of crimes against humanity, And
of course it talks a lot about the crackdown on dissent,
the crackdown on free speech that we've seen in recent
years in Russia. All that has brought it to the
attention of Russia's prosecutor General, and it's been declared an
undesirable organization, effectively a.

Speaker 1 (01:54):
Ban and speaking of a free speech where there's not
a lot of that in Russia. This is really more
for Russian people not to post that stuff anyway.

Speaker 2 (02:03):
Right, Yeah, It certainly is a warning to anyone, as
if they needed one in Russia not to get involved
in these organizations. The undesirable organization label means five years
in prison for a Russian citizen who works with or
funds these designated groups. There are dozens and dozens of

(02:24):
groups that come under this label, from the Radio Free Europe,
the US funded broadcaster, to Greenpeace, many many other organizations
have to have this designation.

Speaker 3 (02:34):
I was just going to ask you, Jonathan, because in
this article I was reading that list that you're talking
about covers like two hundred and twenty three entities, so
it's like everybody's on the list, right.

Speaker 2 (02:45):
Yeah, I mean, then this just speaks to the kind
of crackdown on free speech that we've seen in recent years.
It doesn't just affect Vladimir Putin's direct political opponents, many
of whom are in exile, have been jailed or have
died one way or another. It affects people who are
working at grassroots levels. For example, there was a series

(03:05):
of arrests recently against people allegedly publishing LGBT plus poper
propaganda books. So you know, it goes from sort of
the people who are the very top trying to house
Ladimir puson to people who are trying to affect change
at the bottom too.

Speaker 1 (03:20):
Okay, let's get back to the weather in London. Outside
of that, we'll post links to find more about that
story in the podcast section. At with Radio dot com.
But if I have a summer family trip, what is
the best month to visit London? I think a lot
of times, you know, we get three months here in
the summer, the June, July and August. But they're an

(03:40):
awful lot of people in Great Britain and also have
time off during.

Speaker 2 (03:43):
Then right, yeah, I would suggest June because it's before
the school holidays begin, so there's perhaps a little less
competition if you can get your kids out of school.
If if you have kids anyone coming here. The weather
is pretty pleasant, It's not oppressively hot. I've had some
ridiculously hot times in July and August recently, so I

(04:03):
would say, come in June.

Speaker 1 (04:05):
What sort of landmark looking out a window? If I'm
landing at the airport, well, I get your attention if
I wave out the window. So I'm flying in and
if I go wave now Jonathan Savage is out the window,
what do I see in front of me?

Speaker 2 (04:22):
I would say the Brentford Football Club, the Brentford Soccer Stadium.
If that's on your left, turn to your right and wave.

Speaker 3 (04:29):
Okay, And that was my question. Then Jonathan, if I
have one sporting event, I want to attend when I'm
over there, British Open, Wimbledon or major soccer.

Speaker 2 (04:39):
Oh, I'd go to the soccer. I mean that's just
my preference. But also there are Sony more teams Sony.
It's so much easier to get a ticket than to
Wimbledon for one of two weeks of the year, I
need to queue up for hours. So no, just go
to a football match.

Speaker 1 (04:53):
That is our friend, Jonathan Savage with Fox News Radio
in London. Great stuff. Thank you as always, have a
good one.