In the 18th century, Russian Emperor Peter the Great regularly had his detractors tortured, exiled to Siberia and executed, sometimes for as little as directing ¡°unseemly speech¡± at the sovereign.
In the mid-1930s, Josef Stalin used fabricated charges of treason and coerced confessions to purge potential rivals, including many prominent Old Bolsheviks who were subjected to public show trials. Russian President Vladimir Putin¡¯s current fight against his perceived enemies ¡ª both inside and outside Russia ¡ª carries disturbing echoes of these bleak episodes.
Consider Kremlin critic Ilya Yashin¡¯s October 2022 indictment ¡ª and 8.5-year prison sentence ¡ª for disseminating ¡°fake¡± information about the Russian military. The charges against Yashin were accompanied by the accusation that he had ¡°a dislike for the (Russian) political system.¡± At the time, the Stalinesque overtones were shocking. Three years later, they are par for the course.
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