[johnlohanmclee]

Of course I can't defend this, nor would I want to. But I do want to point out two things:

1) NY Times publishes articles like the above periodically, and they're always accompanied by comments from Russian citizens. My general impression has been that the majority of Russian citizens don't find a problem with Putin's policies towards the media. In many cases, they seem to embrace it.

2) I've also read some articles/essays on the Russian economy post-1990, and the predominant theory is that Putin's style of rule is much more conducive to modernizing, and generally improving, Russia's economy. Back in Yeltsin's rule, there seemed to be very little rule of law. Black markets thrived, and the economy was sort of in a free for all - hence the extreme concentration of wealth in the hands of Russia's nouveau riche.

If you read any political development theory, there is one very important constant that holds in democratic societies. And that is: before you can embrace the political freedoms that make a democracy transparent, egalitarian, and successful, there needs to be a period during which rule of law is the major goal. Democracies can't function without efficient legal codes and systems, nor without widespread respect for law. Russia's not a democracy, and I don't know if it's headed there anytime soon. But my hope is that, once things settle down, they'll get back on the right track.