I think it says quite a lot about the freedom of press situation in Russia when a reporter is just as likely to face violence and threats for reporting about the past as they are for muckraking some contemporary politician for corruption, or another breaking news issue.  That’s what is happening to the former dissident and political prisoner Alexander Podrabinek, who is getting threats of physical violence and scary Nashi-organized protests outside his apartment door (not the first time he’s been targeted).  According to a story in the AP, Podrabinek provoked the ire of the nationalists when he criticized their campaign to have a restaurant change its name from “Anti-Soviet” to something more patriotic. 

The article quotes human rights leader Lev Ponomarev (who, naturally, has also suffered beatings at the hands of likely the same groups threatening Podrabinek):  “The Russian state has developed an alarming pattern of using careerist Russian youths in Nashi, which is controlled by United Russia, to attack its enemies. (…) The creeping rehabilitation of Stalin is designed to pave the way for the return of Putin as an autocratic leader.“