Vasily Yakemenko, leading a delegation of pro-Kremlin “Nashi”–think Russian Hitlerjungen–met with students at Stanford and dropped some amusing rhetorical bombs:

With reluctance, Yakemenko touched on the issues like freedom of press in Russia. At one point, Yakemenko took on the matter of Novaya Gazeta, the newspaper that was shut down on charges of unlicensed software for the six months preceding Russia’s December 2007 parliamentary election. Claiming that Novaya Gazeta was available on every street corner, Yakemenko stated that the paper’s existence was the perfect example of Russia’s free press. “At times, [the paper] writes things about the government for which they’d be lynched in the U.S.,” he said straight-faced.