With a judge handing down a five-year suspended prison
sentence, a fine of 500,000 rubles (about $8,400), and a ban on participating
in the upcoming presidential election in 2017, Aleksei Navalny could feel just
how power can be wielded by high government officials, including even
presidents—power ultimately backed up by stern men with guns with the legal
right to use lethal force. This, I submit, is what government comes down to—it’s
bottom line.
The true look of a government's power. (Sergei Brovko/Reuters)
The full essay is at "Russia's Putin beyond Constitutional Government."
