The Miqma'q one time had a protest against the gouvernement of canada not doing what the treaty said they must do. There was only maybe 100 indiens present for the protest but the news people said it was more than a thousand and there was damage. It was 100 indiens filmed 10 times different and 1 man threw a lawn chair at a auto-bus.
Sure- they have way less people in prison than the USA. And there have been no executions in Russia since 1996.
In that sense they may have more freedoms, but politically for sure they don't. The elections are severely rigged by the government, the media is controlled by Putin's buddies, and it's potentially fatal for journalists to criticize the government. And if the police did nothing to protesters this time, that's not the way they usually operate. They routinely beat up protesters and arrest scores of them.
Western corporate mass media are not free or neutral, the elections are manipulated as well (remember the bush vote?).
People do get arrested without reason. There have actually been reports about journalists getting killed. Do NOT fool yourselves.
They are actually free in relation to bureaucracy of US. Money is vodka.. They are not tagged to near DNA level by a####les in power. kak