I have written about the travails of Iranian blogging and the difficulties they face with their government. Frequently, independent bloggers in Iran are shut down for speaking out against anything not called the United States, and often they are thrown in jail and charged with absurd crimes like "insulting the Supreme Leader of Iran."
The Russians are learning well from their uranium trading partners to the South. For the first time, a Russian blogger has been arrested for "insulting the police." This is part of a series of new laws banning "hate speech" on the Internet. The maximum punishment in this instance is two years in prison or a large fine.
Russia has now truly become an authoritarian state in every way. It already had the severely rigged elections, the suspension of independent media outlets, the suppression of opposition rallies, the cult of personality for its leaders. But now it has the means of crushing dissent on the Internet, an opportunity afforded to only the elite among dicatorships -- your Chinas, your Irans, your Pakistans. Welcome to the club, Putin and Medvedev.
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