Vladimir Putin did not destroy Russia’s independent media through some overtly dictatorial laws or even through the corrupt courts he controls.

Freedom of speech in Russia was strangled first and foremost by capitalist mechanisms, which proved to be an unbeatable tactic. Someone from the Kremlin would call the owner of a particular TV channel and then came a “request” that the owner usually could not – or did not want to – refuse.

The question was always the same: what mattered more, his business or a particular journalist or story? From that point on, the owner handled everything himself. He needed no additional instructions and no legal paperwork. New Feature

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So when the exact same scenario played out in the US with Jimmy Kimmel

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