Ok I am very much in favour of Russia clamping down hard on corruption. As far as I am concerned, anyone corrupt should get a hard punishment until people get the message. It's pathetic that a European country is as corrupt as Russia apparently is. I am very glad that they are dealing with it.

The question is whether they would have prosecuted normal citizens for the crimes that Navalny and his brother apparently committed? Or did they get targetted because they are opposition figures?

I believe in honesty and transparency in politics and if the authorities want to stop Navalny's blog they should just be honest and say "this type of writing is illegal, cease it or you'll go to prison". Like China does.

On the other hand, I am aware that there is a huge media campaign in West against Russia, trying to depict a dictatorship in which anyone who opposes Putin is sent to a labour camp like some kind of flashback to the 19th century.

I am trying to figure out what happened here:

A corrupt person, who happens to be an anti-government person got justly sentenced for fraudulent business practices....?

Or an innocent anti-government blogger was targetted with trumped corruption charges to scare him off his anti-government activities.


And note: With the state of democracy in the EU, in Sweden and the UK I don't think I am in a position to point a finger at Russia. "Let him who is free from sin cast the first stone". Hence, I just want to understand what happened .