Mikhail Khodorkovsky after a press conference in Berlin on December 22, 2013 (AFP/File, David Gannon)

For a month now the Russian government has been engaged in a full-scale — and accelerating — crackdown against political dissent and the freedom of the press. TV stations have been raided, protesters sentenced to years of hard labor, and activists homes have been searched for crimes that were committed when they were little kids. In particular, Russian opposition leader Mikhail Khodorkovsky has been charged with a seventeen year-old murder, despite the fact that a suspect is already serving time, and the offices and homes of his employees have been raided over a twelve year-old fraud case despite the fact that there have already been trials and convictions in that case as well.

This week Boston College professor Matt Sienkiewicz is joined by The Interpreter’s Managing Editor James Miller and Andy Owens, a visiting assistant professor at BC, to discuss the state of human rights in Russia. Matt and James then take a look at the latest political news from the GOP primary race.

Additional reading:

A Russian Crackdown On Dissent Is Already Underway

John Kasich’s website “Trump-Putin 2016 — Make Tyranny Great Again”

Last Week’s Podcast: Gay Rights and the Legacy of the Sochi Winter Olympics

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Audio for today’s podcast was edited by Maximillien Inhoff.