On Wednesday the news broke that Novaya Gazeta’s deputy editor Sergei Sokolov (seen left) had apparently been threatened by Russia’s chief investigator Aleksandr Bastrykin, in an ominous sounding confrontation in a Moscow forest. The claims were, regretfully, not particularly surprising.  Journalism in Russia is a high-risk profession for reporters who are unwilling to toe the Kremlin line and the Investigative Committee has been sharpening its claws this week with the crackdown on the opposition.  Bastrykin’s response – immediate denial – was hardly surprising either.