Repression And Violence Presaged Boris Nemtsov's Assassination

The atmosphere of repression and violence in Russia that forms the backdrop of the assassination of opposition leader Boris Nemtsov is the subject of an article in today's once great Washington Post Bezos Bugle.  It's rather chilling to read how completely Russian President Tsar Vladimir "Vlad the Invader" Putin has returned his country to a state of paranoia and violence not seen since the days of Joseph Stalin.  Here are snippets, but read the article if you can for the full picture of the tragedy that's befallen this nation whose potential continues to be thwarted by its malevolent rulers:

Putin gave official sanction to the sharpened tone against the political opposition a year ago, many of his critics say, when he warned that “a fifth column” and “national traitors” were undermining Russia from within. Banners soon hung in the heart of Moscow that said Nemtsov and fellow opposition leaders were “aliens among us.” And Russia’s powerful state-run television stations were quickly suffused with grim tales of Western-backed crimes against their countrymen in Ukraine, further fueling popular disbelief that any Russian could support the other side.

Of course, the Russian government has its own version of our own Republican Party's Fox "News", which propagandizes shamelessly:

State-run television is a key linchpin of the Kremlin’s strategy to foster anti-Western sentiments, analysts say. Trusted far more than Soviet-era broadcasts ever were, networks transmit a skillful blend of fact and spin, unrelentingly promoting the idea that Russia is a nation under attack from inside and out. Their budgets have been bolstered this year, even as other state agencies have been forced to cut.  [snip]

Ahead of a nationalist rally held less than a week before Nem­tsov’s death, slick promotions ran constantly on federal news channels imploring people to turn out. The protest, held on the first anniversary of Ukrainian president Viktor Yanukovych’s ouster, was billed as an “anti-Maidan” rally to prevent what happened in Kiev from repeating in Moscow.

If you've got the sense that playing the victimization and "aliens among us" cards by Putin's kleptocratic dictatorship sounds familiar, it's what we've been hearing from the far-right in the United States (and Europe) for decades.  That kinship among reactionaries may be why so many Republicans swooned over Putin's as a "real leader", as opposed to their twice- popularly- elected President.