Vladimir Kara-Murza: Putin's Desperate Crackdown (original) (raw)
No cordons can stop Russians' growing awareness that their everyday problems cannot be addressed by an authoritarian system.
Sofia Kalistratova, one of the few Soviet-era attorneys brave enough to represent dissidents in the courtroom, always urged her defendants to follow every minutia of the law so as not to give the authorities the luxury of a pretext. "Others may cross the street on a red light, but you must always cross on green," she liked to say.
In today's Russia even crossing on green can get you in trouble. Last Saturday opposition leader Boris Nemtsov, a former deputy prime minister and a likely future presidential candidate, was walking toward Triumfalnaya Square on his way to a pro-democracy rally.
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