Putin's Critics Used to Drop Dead -- Now, they Vanish
Filed under: Russia
On March 23rd, Britain's Daily Mail reported that "jet-setting billionaire Leonid Rozhetskin [shown above with his wife and another model on the French Riviera two years ago], an outspoken critic of Russian President Vladimir Putin, vanished from his $2 million home just outside the Latvian capital Riga a week ago."
Well, you may say, so what? Who cares about a rich guy. And besides, some people say it might be a hoax (his mother begs to differ, as might one Khodorkovsky).
OK, but tell that to the family of artist Anna Mikhalchuk (pictured, left). The New York Times reported on March 28th that "she left her apartment in the West Berlin district of Charlottenburg on Good Friday at 3:30 p.m. and has not been heard from since. Ms. Mikhalchuk, who exhibits under the name Alchuk, took part in 'Caution! Religion,' a 2003 exhibition at Moscow's Andrei Sakharov Museum that opponents called 'blasphemous.' Shortly after the show opened, six men from an Orthodox church in Moscow ransacked the museum, damaging or destroying many of the works on display." The Guardian calls her "a public critic of Russian president Vladimir Putin."
Hmmmm . . .
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