It's a true measure of the depths to which Russia has sunk that its most ardent democrat is a mafia titan in exile. As the Moscow News reports, the Kremlin has attempted to extradite Boris Berezovsky (pictured) from Britain after Berezovsky pledged to devote his fortune to bringing down the Neo-Soviet Union. A British court has just told the Kremlin to go soak its head:

District Judge Timothy Workman, sitting at Bow Street Magistrates’ Court, central London, said extradition proceedings would be “futile” and incur “great expense to the British taxpayer”, the AFP news agency reported. In comments quoted by the British Press Association, the judge said that as Berezovsky had been granted asylum in 2003 “it would be impossible for the secretary of state to order his extradition to the Russian Federation.” Russia’s public prosecutor’s office opened legal proceedings against the tycoon in April and the Russian parliament formally requested his extradition in March. Members of Russia’s lower house of parliament, the State Duma, have said in a resolution that Berezovsky continued “activities undermining Russian security” during his exile in Britain. Berezovsky told AFP on January 23 that he wanted to invest his fortune in organising a coup in Russia to “re-establish” the Russian constitution by 2008, deemed buried by President Vladimir Putin. He later repeated his statement on Ekho Moskvy radio. The one-time media baron fled Russia in 2000 after Putin’s rise to power, saying charges of large-scale fraud and swindling against him were politically motivated.

Jolly good, Britons! Who are the next most important courageous democrats in Russia? These days, as the New York Times reports, it's the National Bolsheviks of course:

Demonstrators disrupted an address in the Kremlin by President Vladimir V. Putin, shouting "Russia without Putin!" and "No to censorship!" as Mr. Putin took his seat on the stage, news agencies reported. Mr. Putin, facing criticism for the government's increasing influence over television and its muzzling of the free news media, was preparing to address international newspaper executives and editors attending this year's World Newspaper Congress. The demonstrators, from the National Bolshevik Party, an organization of mostly young activists that has prominently unfurled anti-Putin banners and spoken out against him in the past, were swiftly ejected. Mr. Putin continued with his speech, trying to assure the news executives that Russia respected freedom of the press. Local television barely mentioned the disruption.