Same old story.
The Economist (EU) Sat, Apr 11, 2026
“They promoted an old idea, common in monarchies throughout history, that injustice cannot be the good tsar’s fault: it must be his bad officials’. The story of one local administrator illustrates the potency of this myth. Alexander Shestun disobeyed an order to ban protests against a toxic landfill from which crooked apparatchiks were thought to be profiting. Summoned to Moscow, he was threatened by Kremlin bigwigs: back down, or you will be jailed on bogus charges and lose your home. Shestun secretly recorded the conversation and released it on YouTube, naively imagining that this would get the corrupt bigwigs into trouble. Instead, he was jailed for 15 years and lost his home.”