“It’s very frightening what they’re doing to Dimitri Simes and what they’re doing to Scott Ritter,” US journalist and political commentator Jackson Hinkle told Sputnik on the sidelines of the Eastern Economic Forum in Vladivostok, commenting on the recent wave of raids by the FBI targeting alternative media personalities in the US.
“Now I’m in Vladivostok. I’m safe for the time being. I’m happy about that. But it’s very frightening. We have no free speech. It’s simply people dissenting and saying that Russia is not our enemy, that we should struggle for peace rather than war. And for that, the FBI raids their home, takes their personal belongings," Hinkle said, adding that in Scott Ritter’s case, the feds took his passport, meaning “he can’t even leave the country.”
“And it’s all happening…on a global scale for the West. Pavel Durov, Richard Medhurst getting arrested in the UK. There was another young fellow arrested in the UK. Danny Shaw –a professor from New York. He was interrogated by the FBI this week. They temporarily took his passport. The list goes on and on right now of everything that’s happened over the past six weeks, and they’re really trying to crack down before the elections,” Hinkle said.
Hinkle blames the Biden regime specifically, saying the “biggest issue” the deep state is trying to crack down on is “people who are trying to stop World War Three.”
Hinkle also noted that while he was in the US, he couldn’t help “thinking every day” that he “was going to get a knock at the door from the FBI” to raid his home.
“I mean they’ve already shown that I’m a target. They’ve already banned me and many others from all social media, virtually. And the last thing that they need to do is just put us in prison and then we’re completely silenced,” the commentator said, pointing out that the recent arrest of Telegram CEO Pavel Durov in France shows that if they can do that to Durov, “they can do it to anyone.”
Pivoting to the Ukrainian conflict, Hinkle gave his impressions on life in Russia's new territories in the Donbass and Zaporozhye.
“I think Americans should know that what Ukraine is doing is [to] beg for more and more weapons and…beg for more and more taxpayer dollars. They’re using it all to terrorize Ukrainian civilians, some of whom I spoke to voted for Zelensky [in 2019, ed.], and then they get their house bombed by him,” US journalist and political commentator Jackson Hinkle told Sputnik on the sidelines of the Eastern Economic Forum in Vladivostok, commenting on his impressions from his recent trip to Russia’s new territories.
In liberated areas, civilians who chose to stay came to be “seen as a legitimate target for Ukraine and for the United States. They will bomb you. And you know, the people are very upset by this, and they’re very happy that Russia’s there to protect them and to rebuild what needs to be rebuilt,” Hinkle said.
“I saw a lot of rebuilding going on, which was really impressive in Mariupol. When we drove into Mariupol, there was well over a thousand construction vehicles working late into the night…We got to see the Zaporozhye Nuclear Power Plant and how [Ukraine’s military is] shelling the power plant, which was scary to be very close to the front line and to know that they have all the nuclear waste and nuclear power stations there,” Hinkle recalled.
In another area, about 15 km from the front, Hinkle said he saw “home after home of these civilian apartment buildings that were being bombed by Ukraine with US missiles.”
In Melitopol, liberated Zaporozhye, Hinkle said he had a chance to talk to a lot of people. “Everyone was very happy that Russia’s there – so a complete 180 turn from what we hear in the mainstream press in the West about the situation.”