Here's a tough row to hoe for the Russian Wives Club.
"The unfolding of Soviet activity in today’s Russia has been swift and unrelenting. If we look back over the past few months, we see a breathtakingly brazen litany of arrests and prosecutions by the Kremlin of its political foes, in a manner eerily reminiscent of the Soviet days, which have gone unchallenged and indeed virtually unnoticed in the West. "
One huge problem for you Spannie - the majority of the people listed as "victims" of Putin were being investigated for crimes ranging from financial shenanigans to murder. It's a shame these pundits don't do more research before they take up the cause of these people. The thugs in question (like Khodorkovsky, the Volgograd mayor, etc) understand the easiest way to gain sympathy is to claim "oppression" because people in the West are willing to take such claims at face value. It's the equivalent of believing Marc Rich was oppressed by the US Government.