John Bolton's Curious Appearance In A Russian Gun Rights Video

[milestogo]

Former U.N. ambassador John Bolton recorded a video used by the Russian gun rights group The Right to Bear Arms in 2013 to encourage the Russian government to loosen gun laws.

The episode, which has not been previously reported, illustrates the common cause that Russian and American gun rights groups were forming in the years leading up to the 2016 election through former National Rifle Association president David Keene. Keene appointed Bolton to the NRA's international affairs subcommittee in 2011.

Russian politician Alexander Torshin helped establish The Right to Bear Arms and cultivate ties with American gun rights groups including the NRA. As a Putin ally, Torshin served as the deputy speaker of Russia's parliament for more than a decade, and also spent time on Russia's National Anti-Terrorism Committee, a state body that includes the director of Russia's internal security service.

The Bolton video appears to be another plank in a bridge built by Russia to conservative political organizations inside the United States. It's unclear why Russian leaders wanted to curry favor with the NRA, but Torshin and Keene appeared to have developed close ties over in the years prior to the 2016 election.

https://www.npr.org/2018/03/22/595897412/john-boltons-curious-appearance-in-a-russian-gun-rights-video

[Hoyt]

1. Bolton holds a position with the NRA to spread guns around the world. n/t

[Hermit-The-Prog]

2. meet your new National Security Advisor

It's a Government Of Putin.

https://www.democraticunderground.com/10142021439
McMaster to Resign as National Security Advisor, and will be Replaced by John Bolton

[Wwcd]

3. From RawStory also:

https://www.rawstory.com/2018/03/watch-john-bolton-praises-new-era-freedom-putin-bizarre-propaganda-video-russian-gun-group/amp/?__twitter_impression=true


Bolton was formerly George W. Bush’s ambassador to the United Nations. Not only did Bolton lie about Iraq having weapons of mass destruction—he maintains that he was right to do so.

Bolton is also an ardent authoritarian who has told other Trump staffers to “toe the line or resign,” and he led an organization that employed disgraced data firm Cambridge Analytica.

Bolton also has ties to Russia.
In 2013, as NPR reports, Bolton saluted “a new era of Freedom for the Russian people” under Putin in a video made for The Right to Bear Arms, a Russian gun-rights group launched by Putin ally Alexander Torshin.

Bolton wanted Russia to loosen gun laws to “better allow for the protection of mothers, children and families.”

“Good luck on your journey into a new century of freedom,” Bolton said.

“This right has assured Americans of their freedom to engage in two critical acts of survival: the gathering of food and the protection of their families by all appropriate means,” Bolton says.

“Our right bear arms does not detail what types of arms those may be, an important point that allows for both the evolution of technology and the evolution of responses to threats not then or yet imagined.”

[Tanelorn]

4. Fair is fair

I guess when it comes to a shooting war its fair if both sides have weapons. Who will be the suppliers I wonder?

What an odd video to make . The Russian connections keep coming up everywhere. This is one of the more surprising ones.

[Maggiemayhem]

5. Only because the GOP worships Putin

They don’t see him as an enemy or question his motives as he executes people who get in his way. They crave authoritarianism.

[Crowman2009]

6. If only Tony Benn was still alive.

I loved it when he made this mustached asshole squirm:

[tomhagen]

7. Now Russia can have School Shootings too.