Hopefully I am not edging into tirade status by posting again on the same topic, but I was talking about my blog entry with a friend of mine yesterday (who is a Russian by birth and still spends half the year there), and she turned me onto a big story in her region of the country. It tied in so well with my blog entry the other day that I figured I would drop it in here. It should be said that a lot of these facts are from "independent news sources," however, the totality of stories of this type lead me to believe that there is some validity to that fact that this behaviour is transpiring at some level. The article that I will link to goes into depth on a series of murders and other forms of aggression and intimidation levied towards journalists in Russia. I will repeat my inclination to believe that until Russia limits corruption, and TRULY promotes transparency. They will never achieve the level of a true leader nation. All the political posturing aside, this is not 21st century behavior from a nation state.

http://www.indexoncensorship.org/2009/11/russia-the-price-of-independence/