Putin's Russia: even as the government clamps down on dissent, more Russians are protesting President Putin's longtime reign.

• Author: Smith, Patricia
• Position: INTERNATIONAL - Vladimir Putin

Had it happened in the United States, their political prank might have generated headlines but not much else:

Last February, a Russian punk band made up of three young women entered Moscow's main Russian Orthodox cathedral. They danced in front of the altar with their guitars and sang a satirical song asking the Virgin Mary to rid Russia of President Vladimir Putin.

The three women were arrested for hooliganisin, and in August a judge appointed by the Kremlin* found them guilty and sentenced them to two years in prison.

"To my deepest regret, this mock trial is close to the standards of the Stalinist troikas," said Nadezhda Tolokonnikova, 23, one of the band members, referring to the tribunals Soviet dictator Joseph Stalin used to remove his political enemies.

The case has become an international symbol of Russia's increasingly autocratic government. The U.S. and other Western nations fear that Putin is chipping away at many of the democratic reforms introduced after the fall of the Soviet Union.

It's not the only recent example of Putin's clampdown on political freedoms. In June, he signed a measure imposing heavy fines for organizing or taking part in unsanctioned demonstrations. That gives the Russian authorities the power to crack down on antigovernment street protests, which began in December after charges that parliamentary elections were rigged and grew more intense after Putin won re-election in March. Protesters can be fined $9,000-a severe penalty in a country where the average yearly salary is $8,500.

In July, the government strengthened controls on the Internet and nonprofit organizations. The government can now block websites it deems dangerous to children. The United Nations expressed alarm at the authoritarian measures.

"I urge the government of the Russian Federation to avoid taking further steps backward to a more restrictive era," said Navi Pillay, the U.N.'s high commissioner for human rights.

Czars, Communism & Chaos

When the Soviet Union collapsed in 1991, it looked as if Russia might emerge as a true democracy. But democracy does not seem to be a natural fit for Russia. For 350 years, the country was ruled by powerful czars, and the Soviet Union--America's Cold War adversary--was a brutal Communist dictatorship dating back to the 1917 Russian Revolution.

The years that followed the Soviet collapse were marked by chaos and economic upheaval. When Putin (a former head of the KGB, the Soviet spy agency) took over as...