The Kremlin has long orchestrated Russia¡¯s court system as an instrument for oppression and propaganda, using a veneer of legality to silence critics and to impose its version of events.
In December, for example, Russia¡¯s Supreme Court liquidated the country¡¯s most prominent human rights group, Memorial, ruling that its work chronicling Josef Stalin-era brutality had distorted the Soviet Union¡¯s historical image.
Months earlier, a Moscow court had condemned the political and anti-corruption organizations founded by Alexei Navalny as ¡°extremist,¡± eventually sentencing the opposition leader to nine years in prison.
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