In yet another example of the total failure in public relations that characterizes the Putin regime, Time magazine has devoted a cover to "the chill in Russia" showing a matrioshka doll with tape over its mouth, an indelible image.

The issue contains a number of wonderful features, including a piece on dissidents like Mikhail Khodorkovsky (accompanied by a terrifyingly ghoulish photo of the man in Siberian prison) and a profile of dissidents that leads with focus on Lidia Yusupova that also includes a great photograph, as well as a linked article on Litvinenko. It's just too bad that Time couldn't have given Yulia this much-deserved coverage while she was still contending to win the Nobel Peace prize rather than only afterwards. Click through to read the stories, Time deserves the credit and attention. Time sums up the problem succinctly when it states of the neo-Soviet crackdown, as La Russophobe has been saying for months now:

Has anyone noticed? Some dissidents complain that, now that the cold war is over, Russia can get away with anything. "At least in the Soviet Union times there was a steady drumbeat of people in the West talking about the problem. Today, lots of Russian activists feel isolated," says Gill. That's not to say there's no support; the European Union and the Council of Europe hold regular discussions about human-rights issues with Russian authorities, and Angela Merkel, the German Chancellor, recently raised the matter of Khodorkovsky's imprisonment directly with Putin, saying the conditions of the oil boss's detention were "unacceptable."