Do you remember an NYTimes article by the Russian dissident Navalny that I discussed on the blog the other day?
Navalny is now being accused in Russia of being a CIA agent. His statements were edited to make it seem like he is some sort of a spy. It’s very easy nowadays to edit a recording where one says something like, “Last night I had a nightmare that I’m a CIA spy” into “I’m a CIA spy.”
Any statements criticizing the regime are now declared extremist and people making them are accused of being American spies.
Putin is now in the perfect situation of somebody who can’t be criticized for anything he does because any dissident automatically turns into a spy.
Doesn’t this all sound familiar?
Clarissa's Blog 
The Russian public knows what it wants and Putin intends to give it to them, good and hard (w/ apologies to Mencken).
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Another article to consider (I have not read, but I have seen the pictures, and do not understand what that hammer and sickle are doing in photo #5). http://www.spiegel.de/international/europe/ukraine-invasion-reveals-flaws-in-politics-of-putin-and-russia-a-957815.html
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Each battalion in Ukraine and Russia preserves the banner of the battalion from WWII. The Ukrainian soldiers have been bringing their WWII banners to every encounter with the Russian troops as a way of saying, “Look, we are not fascists. We are from a battalion just like yours that fought against fascists in the war.” This is a way of evoking shared values and a common past to prevent bloodshed.
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