MOSCOW ¨C A little over a year ago, while on sabbatical from the American university where I teach, I returned to my hometown, Moscow. I didn¡¯t exactly arrive in a bastion of free speech. But it was a place where some freedom still remained.
Opposition leader Alexei Navalny traveled around the country, attempting to muster support for politicians who were not under the Kremlin¡¯s thumb. Popular protests took place. Independent NGOs operated in the country. Journalists and analysts did not necessarily toe the Kremlin line. And the Communist Party was widely viewed as a relic of the past.
Since then, Navalny has been imprisoned and the protest movement he mobilized has been crushed. His anti-corruption foundation has been outlawed for ¡°extremism,¡± and its members are under investigation or in exile. Virtually every day, another journalist, media outlet, human-rights advocate, or independent organization is listed as a ¡°foreign agent¡± or ¡ª worse ¨C¡ª an ¡°undesirable.¡±
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