presided over a democracy for 17 straight years while opposition leaders consistently find themselves arrested or dead and opposition parties find themselves outlawed or otherwise structurally sidelined, so, too, the russian just system. on paper looks great, right? but in real life everybody up to and including punk bands and billionaires find themselves in inside literal cages in russian courtrooms at the pleasure of the president. and his political opponents get prosecuted and convicted when he wants them prosecuted and convicted and that s how the justice system worked. the rule of law cannot just exist on paper, it s only real, it only really works when it operates with independence, with independence from the political system, when the judicial system operates at its own discretion governed by law and not directed or constrained by any political agenda. not directed or constrained by any political agenda.