Obstacles to Brainwashing

This is from a comment piece by Dmitri Sidorov in Forbes on the murders of Stanislav Markelov and Anastasi Baburova:

The double murder of Markelov and Baburina comes as yet another dreadful confirmation that to be a human rights advocate, or an investigative journalist without Kremlin sanction, is equivalent to a death sentence in today’s Russia.

Any unsanctioned move rouses the ire of the various forces in and around the Kremlin that prize, above all else, control over “sensitive” information they consider an obstacle to the brainwashing of the population. If the defense of human rights and the exposure of crimes committed by members of the security service is at issue, as it was with Markelov, the stakes are even higher.