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But perhaps the most disturbing recent example of racial violence was the murder of Muslim activist Metin Mekhtiyev, who was knifed in the neck and face outside his building in central Moscow earlier this month.

Police say it was a robbery, since his Vertu mobile phone, money and keys were missing. But the brutality of the crime points to a racially motivated attack, said Vera Alperovich, an expert in extremism at Moscow’s Sova Center for Information and Analysis.

Xenophobia toward non-whites is rising in Russia, especially toward migrant workers from Central Asia and the restive North Caucasus region, where unemployment is rampant.

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The days of the Fraternal Order of Police suing the Crucifucks, Tipper Gore taking on the Dead Kennedys, and black metal goblins burning churches are long past. Punk is now no more a social threat than some leftist fringe group selling poorly designed newspapers. And yet, with three of its alleged members now imprisoned and facing seven-year jail sentences, the pastel-balaclava-wearing, sloppy-guitar-playing riot grrrls have become an icon of a brewing cultural revolution in Russia.

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Wherever you turn – from contemporary literature to media reporting – there seems to be an unremittingly negative portrayal of modern Russia as corrupt, undemocratic and gangster-run. Is that a fair description?

Well, it’s both better and worse than the popular perception. It’s worse in the sense that I think the country is really run by what amounts to a gangster syndicate which is ruthless in its pursuit of wealth and power, and distorts the machinery of the state in order to achieve that and to perpetrate crimes against the Russian people. So I think Russia is worse than the slightly sanitized picture we get in the media, not least because of libel laws that mean it’s quite hard to write clearly and bluntly about some of the people involved.

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Press freedom grew under President Dmitry Medvedev. Last year’s reforms included demoting libel to a less serious crime and increasing jail terms for assault on journalists. But, as after each major event in Russia since 2000, a crackdown on independent media followed the Dec. 4 parliamentary elections, which sparked mass rallies all over Russia over alleged fraud.

The government maintains that Russia's press is free.

“Freedom of the press is guaranteed and provided in this country,” Putin’s press secretary Dmitry Peskov said. The policy toward the media will continue after Putin officially becomes president — again — on May 7, Peskov said.

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But in a sign that the movement may be losing momentum, Monday’s gathering was significantly smaller than protests before the vote, which awarded another presidential term to Prime Minister Vladimir Putin.

About 20,000 gathered in Pushkinskaya Square Monday night to protest Vladimir Putin’s victory in the presidential elections, which an election watchdog has said was rigged.

Protesters chanted “Russia without Putin,” but displayed noticeably less zeal than the previous protests in Bolotnaya Square and Sakharov Prospekt.

Some waved flags and held banners. One read, “Moscow Doesn’t Believe in Tears,” referring to Putin’s tearful victory speech and a title of a popular Russian film.

Opposition leader Sergei Udaltsov, one of the first speakers at the rally, said that he would not leave the square until Putin leaves the Kremlin and urged others to stay with him.

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Masha Gessen’s political history of Putin’s times,"The Man Without a Face," gives at least a dozen reasons to tremble before her subject. It is a rage-filled indictment of the Russian prime minister, astonishingly brazen in its personal animus and willingness to name Putin as the author of terrible crimes. Among recent profiles of contemporary Russia, there are certainly books that are more sober and more cautious. There are few as furiously accusatory.

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At a massive rally held in his honor by supporters on Manezh Square, just outside the Kremlin, Putin praised Russians for their mature political thinking and independence in a vote that observers warned had been tainted by fraud.

“It was a test,” he said. “We showed that our people are really capable of differentiating the desire for something new from political provocations that have only one goal — to destroy Russian sovereignty and usurp power.”

His voice shook and a tear streamed from his eye. He was so overcome that he even stuttered. “I call for everyone to unite for the interests of our people and our homeland.”

“We won,” Putin said, stabbing the air with his index finger. “Glory to Russia!”

The crowd, made up of mostly men, cheered, waving flags and banners.

Putin received 64.7 percent of the vote, according to preliminary results, allowing him to win outright and avoid a runoff election.

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Popular blogger Oleg Kozyrev, in a “question of the day,” asked, "Assassination of Vladimir Putin: foiled or made up?"

The most popular response? "Lies."

Kozyrev wasn’t the only one to question whether the assassination announcement was staged to raise the prime minister’s popularity before the presidential election slated for Sunday, March 4.

“Every presidential candidate loves a foiled assassination attempt,” said Gleb Pavlovsky, a former Kremlin adviser dismissed last year for supposedly supporting Dmitry Medvedev. "We're dealing with propaganda here."

Pavlovsky pointed to the amateurish nature of the plot, which unraveled after the alleged terrorists blew themselves up in early January with home-made explosives in a rented Odessa apartment, according to a Monday broadcast on the state-run Channel One television station.

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For anyone eager to understand Russia's depressing 20-year slide from one version of cynical totalitarianism into another, with a brief stop-off in between for giddy, wide-open, largely dysfunctional democracy, "Putin's Kiss" is required viewing. Of course Pedersen can't explain all the conundrums of contemporary Russia in 85 minutes, but in profiling two singularly important young Russians -- pro-Putin youth activist Masha Drokova and leading opposition journalist Oleg Kashin -- she captures some essential drama in the nation's recent political life. (If you read Russian, Kashin's site is here.)

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You read that right. Soviet art. This summer, I went to Nashville to interview Dunn for PRI’s "Studio 360." “I’ll show you my Gerasimov,” he said with a drawl, as he strode up his mansion’s staircase in cowboy boots. “That one’s a Timkov.” The balladeer showed me wall after wall of impressionistic landscapes, portraits and sketches. And then he turned the interview on me: What was Moscow like the last time I went? How’s the traffic? When did I learn Russian, and why?

“Wow,” I thought after I collected my jaw off the floor and said goodbye. “He’s got the Thing. He’s got it bad.”

I should know. I’ve had the Thing most of my life. The Soviet Thing: an addictive mixture of wonder and disgust evoked by all aspects of that communist empire.

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"Mm hmm, yes, I saw you in my dream," she repeated, her Russian accent faded now to a passable American. "Very clearly I saw you. And you were dead."

Like many intelligent Russians who came of age during the closing act of the USSR, my ex-wife was a kind of stand-up comedian in reverse. Just as the talented comic artfully sets up a punch line, so too could she expertly build toward a release of sorts. But the punch line was never a joke. It was instead an opening up of a psychic trap door, showing foolish Americans that beneath their feet was not the security of a prosperous and powerful nation, but rather the void of the impending destruction that awaits us all. When your superpower homeland has been blown apart into 15 compromised statelets it's comforting to keep in your pocket that great transnational equalizer: death.

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The 1990s were a strange time for Solzhenitsyn. In 1991, he published the last volume of "The Red Wheel," his 5,000-page novel about the history of the Russian Revolution -- the fruit of 18 years of toil in the woods of Vermont. It was not overwhelmingly well-received. In 1994, Solzhenitsyn returned to Russia. If you remember one thing about his return, it's that they briefly gave him his own talk show, and that the host was likened to "a combination of Charlie Rose and Moses." Solzhenitsyn eventually abandoned the pretense of inviting guests and simply talked the whole time himself, mostly about the corruption and spiritual decline of Russia. The show was cancelled after a year.

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I know I'm not the intended audience for "Winnie the Pooh," and by all rights, it looks like a very cute picture. But if you're looking for a more far-out interpretation of A.A. Milne's children's classic, check out the Soviet-era "Vinni Pukh" cartoons (sometimes translated as Vinnie-Puh), a trilogy of Russian shorts based on Boris Zakhoder's translation of "Winnie the Pooh."

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Moscow and Tehran signed a US$1 billion contract to build the 1,000-megawatt Bushehr plant in 1995, but delays -- the latest caused by the replacement of damaged equipment and an attack of malicious software on the plant's computer system -- left the plant unfinished for years.

Russian Deputy Foreign Ministry Sergei Ryabkov was quoted by Russian news agencies as saying Monday that the plant is "completed" and will start up in early August.

The United States and some of its allies believe the plant is part of an Iranian attempt to develop nuclear weapons. Iran denies the accusation saying its nuclear intentions are peaceful.

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An award-winning Russian novelist whose 14 works of fiction have been translated into many languages, Ulitskaya has until now only published four books in English; her most recognized title is likely the Manhattan-set novel "The Funeral Party," a nominee for the 2009 Man Booker Prize. "Daniel Stein, Interpreter" was published five years ago in Russia and is now available in English through a marvelous translation by Arch Tait. With its multilingual title character who seeks to use his translating gifts to reconcile and unify as well as to communicate, it might be the perfect introduction to Ulitskaya's big talent.

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The suspect, Rustam Makhmudov, was arrested in Chechnya and is to be transferred to Moscow soon, said Vladimir Markin, a spokesman for Russia's Investigative Committee, the country's top criminal investigation body.

Politkovskaya was internationally renowned for her reports in the newspaper Novaya Gazeta on violence, police oppression and corruption in Chechnya and other parts of the Russian Caucasus gripped by an Islamic insurgency. She was a sharp critic of the Kremlin and of its appointed strongman in Chechnya, Ramzan Kadyrov.

She was gunned down in her Moscow apartment building and her body was found in the building's elevator.

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"He should leave," Russian President Dmitry Medvedev said of Gadhafi.

Frustration is mounting in Moscow and Western capitals that the NATO campaign has dragged into its third month with no obvious end in sight. Analysts are skeptical as to whether Russia would have any leverage over Gadhafi, and the leaders of France, Britain and Germany said there's no point in negotiating directly with Gadhafi himself.

Medvedev, speaking at a news conference at the Group of Eight summit in Deauville, France, said he is sending envoy Mikhail Margelov to the rebel stronghold of Benghazi, Libya, immediately to start negotiating. Medvedev said talks with the Libyan government could take place later.

Medvedev said Russia will use its contacts with both Gadhafi's government and the rebels to try to negotiate a peaceful end to the conflict.

Russian officials have been critical of Gadhafi but also complain about what they called an excessive use of force by NATO and have urged a quick end to hostilities. Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov recently held talks in Moscow with representatives of both Gadhafi's government and the rebels.

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Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov was quoted by Russian news agencies as telling reporters on the sidelines of the Group of Eight summit in Deauville, France, that Gadhafi has exhausted his legitimacy as the Libyan leader.

"We believe that Gadhafi has deprived himself of legitimacy as the Libyan leader, and it's necessary to help him leave," Ryabkov said, adding that Russia is ready to convey such signals to the Libyan side.

"It"s necessary to find a formula for Gadhafi to leave the post, and such a step would help settle other issues," Ryabkov added.

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