Megan Stack at the Los Angeles Times has a good article today on the murder by police brutality of the journalist Konstantin Popov, whose death has revealed the tragic face of routine violence and impunity by members of the policy force.  Popov was not believed to have been singled out for his work as a journalist, but rather merely one of many regular victims of police abuse.

Konstantin Popov was a little-known 47-year-old journalist who specialized in writing about economics. A few days into the new year, in the thick of a 10-day Russian holiday known for its debaucheries, Popov was arrested and thrown into the police holding cell reserved for the drunk and disorderly.

He was taken home the next day, but he had been beaten so badly his wife grew alarmed and took him to a hospital. He soon lapsed into a coma from severe damage to his internal organs.