straight to our guest eric draitser who's a geo political analyst from new york. fifteen years in prison erica is that a fair sentence to think well of course it's not fair but it's certainly par for the course with a monarchy such as you have in bahrain we should remember that the sentences that have been handed down are not simply for these for the protestors or for organizing or for even for the crimes that they say that these individuals had committed that sentence is designed as a scare tactic against all other democracy protesters in bahrain it's a way for the for the ruling family for the al khalifa family to ensure their own dominance within the country by crushing dissent in doing so and this is perhaps the most important point doing so with the tacit approval of the united states and the proxies of the united states in the region that sponsor bahrain such as qatar and saudi arabia so when we're talking about this decision handed down against the protesters should also keep in mind incredibly powerful geo political dimension to this issue and they postpon

educated thing for me to do is to help them as he help me help me before geo political analysts eric draitser thinks the bahraini regime is intimidating the protest movement because it sees a real possibility of losing power. sentence is designed as a scare tactic against all other democracy protesters in bahrain it's a way for the for the ruling family for the al khalifa family to ensure their own dominance within the country the family just like the guitar or the south or the house of saud in saudi arabia they understand that they're engaged in an existential struggle for their very survival they realize that the democratic movements in other countries in the region could very quickly. translate into their own country so for those countries such as rain which has chastised syria for being so-called undemocratic they are the champions of non democratic institutions of torture of killing of extrajudicial killing and all of the rest of these things happening in bahrain that i think is the real scandal. life here in moscow still ahead this pre-election violence ripped through pakistan fourteen

think for me to do is to help them as gay help me help me before i go to your political analyst eric draitser the things that despite the continuing crackdown protests in bahrain well they won't burn out anytime soon. that the people of bahrain have been ruled by one single family of a minority in the country so you're talking about the vast majority of that country having lived in a state of disenfranchisement for their entire lives and they see and remember that bahrain was in many ways the the kernel at the very beginning of the arab spring and the struggle that has continued in bahrain since that early part of two thousand and eleven gets no attention in the western media primarily because as i and many people listening already know bahrain is a client of saudi arabia which is a client of the united states bahrain houses the u.s. fifth fleet bahrain is central to the u.s. imperial plans for the region and for that reason the democracy upsurge in bahrain has been marginalized while the the fraudulent uprising in syria has been glorified this illustrates the hypocrisy of the united states a