In a neatly-argued piece today in today’s Moscow Times, opposition member Vladimir Ryzhkov addresses the iniquities of the Russian justice system, drawing upon his own experience of taking Vladimir Putin to court for slander.  This was prompted by comments the Prime Minister made in his annual televised call-in show, where he compared Ryzhkov (along with fellow opposition leaders Vladimir Milov and Boris Nemtsov) to the robber barons of the 1990s.  Ryzhkov argues:

According to Article 152 of the Civil Code, the defendant in a defamation case — Putin — is required to prove that the claims he made are based on fact. But this is impossible to do because the charges he made against Milov, Nemtsov and myself were completely false. In accordance with standard judicial practices, Judge Tatyana Adamova had to offer an official explanation of why she ruled in favor of Putin. All she could come up with were ludicrous clams that she dug up from several questionable web sites, including those run by nationalist organizations.