Free Republic

Russian officials offered support for Lula, who now presides over the country that like Russia is a member of the club of BRICS emerging economies: — Konstantin Kosachev, chairman of the upper-house Federation Council’s Foreign Affairs Committee: “I was in Brazil when Lula was inaugurated and saw everything with my own eyes: there were no signs of disturbances at all. What happened now is difficult to explain and, from my point of view, non-systemic.”

The US has begun deporting Brazilian opposition leaders to the Gulags as evidence mounts the Jan. 8 riots were staged. US journalist Glenn Greenwald complained about the Communist takeover he helped enable: Chief Justice Alexandre de Moraes is “making himself chief censor of the world,” Greenwald said. Speaking to Steve Bannon, Brazil obesrver Matt Tyrmand said: “They are going full Gulag. This is the worst Communist takeover ever.”

The highest court in Brazil, the Supreme Federal Tribunal (STF), sentenced two of the first defendants implicated in the January 8 Brasilia riot to 17 years in prison on Thursday on a variety of charges including “attempted coup d’etat” and “attempted abolition of the democratic rule of law.” Aécio Lúcio Costa Pereira, 51, was identified as part of a crowd of thousands of supporters of conservative former President Jair Bolsonaro who stormed the Brazilian Congress, STF headquarters, and office of the presidency in January in large part due to videos Pereira himself published on social media in which he documented...