Nemtsov in the Neo-Soviet Dungeon

The brilliant Vladimir Kara-Murza, writing on World Affairs:

In Russia, New Year’s Eve is usually a joyful family occasion. Opposition leader Boris Nemtsov spent it in a police detention cell — a five-by-ten feet concrete cubicle with no windows, no ventilation, no plank bed, not even a mattress. The Moscow Public Supervisory Commission, a prisons watchdog group, reported that conditions of his detention violated the most basic rules. On January 2, the former deputy prime minister of Russia was driven from his cell to Tverskoy Magistrate Court and sentenced to 15 days in prison for “disobeying police.” Judge Olga Borovkova, who forced Mr. Nemtsov to stand for the duration of the trial (more than four hours), disregarded statements from 13 witnesses as well as the video of his arrest. The conviction was based on the words of two police officers who asserted that Mr. Nemtsov was “cursing” and “attempting to block Tverskaya Street” (Moscow’s main avenue). He is currently being held in a detention center on Simferopolsky Boulevard.

EDITORIAL: Yashin 1, Nashi 0

EDITORIAL

Yashin 1, Nashi 0

It’s a mark of how odious and vile the Putin personality cult known as “Nashi” really is that not even Russian courts can stomach it.

Last week, a Moscow court ruled that Nashi’s outrageous lawsuit against opposition leader Ilya Yashin was frivolous, and tossed Nashi out of court on its ear.

The Moscow Times reports:

EDITORIAL: The Putin Dictatorship Poisons Russia

EDITORIAL

The Putin Dictatorship

Anyone who had the slightest doubt about whether Russia is a dictatorship or not lost them last week, when the Putin regime removed Ilya Yashin’s name from the list of candidates running for the Moscow City Council, removed it along with all three of the other Solidarity Party candidates.