Russia crosses new lines in crackdown on Putin’s enemies

Since mid-March, Russia’s parliament has also broadened censorship laws on what people can say about its armed forces and voted to extend the punishment for treason to life imprisonment instead of 20 years.

With virtually all the Kremlin’s opponents already jailed or in exile, and liberal press outlets and human rights groups forced to shut down, it might have appeared that years of repression in Russia had achieved their objective.