President Medvedev proclaimed in his recent Der Spiegel interview that there is little difference between the rights record of Russia and that of its European counterparts: ‘Our values are the same as yours. I don’t see any major differences in terms of freedom and human rights, especially in comparison to the new EU member states’.

Kati Marton and Nina Ognianova of the Committee to Protect Journalists and authors of the “Anatomy of Injustice” report would beg to differ (and doubtless they wouldn’t be the only ones.)  In an op-ed in the New York Times, they explain why it is crucial that international diplomacy redoubles pressure on Russia to stop the killing of journalists with impunity, following the lead, they say, of US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton.

“It’s time to stop treating Russia as a ‘handicapped person,'” former Czech President Vaclav Havel said recently, responding to suggestions that Russia cannot be expected to reach democracy anytime soon. He urged that Russia be treated as a “partner country like any other,” applying the same standards to Russia as we do “to Burma, Brazil, the Czech Republic or any other country.” We agree.

During a recent mission by representatives of the Committee to Protect Journalists to urge the end of impunity in the killing of journalists in Russia, we were struck by Moscow investigators and prosecutors using the familiar excuses: “Give us time,” they told us. “Russia is where the United States was in the days of the Wild West.”