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Putin replies to angry voters
Russians watch Putin's annual call-in show for clues about what the future will bring, but the president took them back to the past. Putin invoked the 1990s to show that life could be worse, if not for his 20 years in power. We republish a slightly abridged report of the show, written by Steve Gutterman for Radio Free Europe, followed by quotations of Putin's most remarkable statements.by Steve Gutterman -
Ivan Golunov is free. Other victims of fabricated charges are not so lucky
The investigative journalist Ivan Golunov, whose arrest in Moscow on false drug charges on June 6 elicited unprecedented outrage in Russia, has been freed and the charged dropped. But being vindicated he is the exception to the rule, writes Olga Romanova, director of the prisoner's rights organisation 'Russia behind bars', for the Moscow Carnegie Center.by Olga Romanova