From the Washington Post, “Reporting Against the Odds“:

IT WAS NO surprise when authorities shut another independent newspaper in Vladimir Putin’s Russia this month, but the pretext was particularly illustrative of the cynicism of Mr. Putin’s regime. The Samara edition of the Novaya Gazeta newspaper had offended those in power by fairly covering the political opposition, so police swooped in on Nov. 8, confiscated the newspaper’s lone remaining computer (having seized the others last spring) and indicted its editor for allegedly using a counterfeit version of some Microsoft software. For one of the world’s leaders in intellectual piracy, this was indeed rich.