Putin on the fritz.

• Author: Sanchez, Julian
• Position: Data - Brief Article

Russia watchers remember the late 1980s and early '90s as a time when tyrannies toppled and the archetypal Evil Empire was dissolved. The intervening years, alas, have shown that building a free country is more than a matter of switching flags and ordering new stationery: The latest survey from the watchdog group Freedom House downgraded Russia from "partly free" to "not free." The country has fallen to its 1988 level, now sharing a "political freedom" rating with Iran and Lebanon and a "civil liberties" rating with Egypt, Qatar, and Chad.

Much of the blame lies with President Vladimir Putin, whose penchant...