McCain pens severe critique of Putin

US senator John McCain penned a blistering column for a Russian news website, telling the Russian people their president, Vladimir Putin, is a dissent-quashing tyrant who “doesn’t believe in you”.

The senior US lawmaker and the 2008 Republican presidential nominee accosted Putin and his associates for rigging elections, imprisoning and murdering opponents, fostering corruption and “destroying” Russia’s reputation on the world stage.

“I am not anti-Russian,” McCain wrote in the piece for Pravda.ru website. “I am pro-Russian, more pro-Russian than the regime that misrules you today.”