The Soviet and Russian secret services have always used the dirtiest tricks possible against their opponents. These typically involve exploiting their victims’ greatest vulnerability — close relatives. A perfect example is how, instead of jailing Boris Pasternak, the Soviet authorities made his mistress, Olga Ivinskaya, serve time, because they knew it would cause him even greater pain.
Alexei Navalny
OP-ED
Andrei Kolesnikov: A Kremlin-KGB remake
Police officers with dogs patrol outside the Babushkinsky district court during the trial of Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny, charged with defaming a World War II veteran, in Moscow on Feb. 5, 2021.
