From the Huffington Post: "The iron bars used to imprison the women of Pussy Riot cannot hold back the wind of freedom"

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/christophe-deloire/russia-prison-bars-cannot-hold-back_b_1864995.html

Russia: Prison Bars Cannot Hold Back the Wind of Freedom

Posted: 09/10/2012 5:42 pm

Christophe Deloire

"On 17 August, three members of the all-women punk band Pussy Riot were sentenced to two years' imprisonment in a penal colony. The verdict confirmed the militaristic character of Putinism, now on a downward path into imperialism and tsarism.
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However, an event that symbolizes the velvet revolution under way took place in mid-June this year. Angered by an unflattering article about him, Russia's chief investigator General Aleksandr Bastrykin drove the deputy editor of the newspaper Novaya Gazeta, Sergei Sokolov, into a forest where he made threats against his life, among other things. The newspaper is noted for its no-holds-barred investigations, as well as its unhappy record of five murders among its staff since Putin came to power. Bastrykin heads the federal committee that investigates sensitive criminal cases, including the murder of Novaya Gazeta journalist Anna Politkovskaya.

It was the incident's aftermath that made it unusual. The editor of Novaya Gazeta, instead of keeping silent from fear of reprisals, published an open letter in which he reported what had happened and said his deputy had left the country temporarily for security reasons."