Anti-Putin Books Seized in Russia

Prominent critics of the regime -- such as the journalist Anna Politkovskaya and the ex–secret policeman turned dissident Alexander Litvinenko -- have been murdered under mysterious circumstances. Those who have tried to pose serious challenges to Putin's hold on power -- such as the former chess champion and presidential candidate Garry Kasparov and the ex-prime minister Mikhail Kasyanov -- have faced official harassment. Freedom of the press, one of the few undeniably positive achievements of the Yeltsin years, has been sharply curtailed. Business interests with close ties to the state bully domestic or foreign investors out of their assets with impunity; indeed, tycoons who have defied the regime now find themselves in exile (Boris Berezovsky) or prison (Mikhail Khodorkovsky).