Putin' Lipstick On Russian Democracy

If you want more evidence of how Russia is fast transforming itself back into a corrupt autocracy, read about the case of Sergei Magnitsky. Magnitsky, a senior partner at a Moscow law firm, was imprisoned, tortured, and murdered after his efforts to shed light on a massive governmental fraud by Interior Ministry officials. Those corrupt officials, in cahoots with elements of the Russian mafis, fraudulently took control of subsidiaries of the Hermitage Fund (one of the law firm's clients), and stole $230 million of taxes they had paid. He was put in a cell with eight inmates and only four beds so the detainees had to sleep in shifts. In December 2008, he was put in a cell with no heat and no windowpanes -- he nearly froze to death. Later, he was moved to another cell with no toilet, just a hole in the floor where the sewage overflowed.