Garry Kasparov, tireless as ever, fires another missive slamming the Kremlin for soft censorship and repression of the press, citing the willingness of Western media to help paint a positively innocent picture of today’s Russia. Like many of Garry’s recent articles, it would be tough to tell when exactly this could have been written – but perhaps that’s due to the unchanging nature of Russia’s political stasis.

How Putin Muzzled Russia’s Press By Garry Kasparov “How come I am still alive? When I really think about it, it’s a miracle.” Several years back so spoke Anna Politkovskaya, the late Russian investigative journalist who for years fearlessly explored the depths of war-ravaged Chechnya. She is now the subject of the documentary “Letter to Anna” by Swiss director Eric Bergkraut. The film premiered in the U.S. last night at the Human Rights Watch Film Festival in New York. Politkovskaya reported conversations with families ripped apart by war. She was also the voice of Russian soldiers who were ashamed of the atrocities committed in their country’s name. Her work made her the enemy of many powerful people, and on Oct. 7, 2006, the 48-year-old was gunned down in the foyer of her apartment building. In May, Dmitry Medvedev took Vladimir Putin’s chair, if not his power. At the World Russian Press Congress in Moscow on June 11, Mr. Medvedev pledged to “support media freedom.” But the picture remains bleak.