The truth is that Russia is rising from the ruins of the 90-th, Russian people are better off now. And most of them like Putin, because Putin did good job to take the country out of the chaos, humiliation and uncertainty, by strengthening the state and returning to the people the sense of self respect and respect to their country. The dynamics of the Russia’s development is good, positive. You can see it in new developments in the Russian cities, in Russia’s sport victories (congratulation with winning the Hockey World Cup!), in Russian investments out of the country and foreign investments in Russia. Putin deserved credit for that.
The truth is that democracy is not the main Russians’ problem. If you are naked, get the pants first, and than think about buying a hat. Russians have exactly as much of democracy as they want.
The truth also is that Nemtsov is the last person the Russians would like to see in their government. But this looser had tasted of the power a little bit before Yeltsyn sacked him, and still can not forget that good for him time. He is not interesting to anybody in Russia, his book says nothing new factually, and his interpretation of the facts is known without reading the book. That is why the book stores do not sell his book. This is business after all, and the stores work for profit. And Nemtsov is not a poor man to be eligible for charity. He worked in the government during the good for all kind of thieves Yeltsyn’s time in power.
So, do not worry guys! Russians are on the right tracks. All at once is not possible. It takes time. Russia is a big country after all, and it has too many lines of weakness. Falling down in chaos again would be fatal for the nation. Russia so far, needs a strong hand to govern her. Democracy will improve in Russia. It is a matter of getting stronger economically for the nation, and population growing richer with a stronger middle class. Your favorite democracies like Taiwan, South Korea, Singapore, were dictatorships for some time. And Russia is just a somewhat authoritarian.

It’s never surprising that his own small and secretive KGB mentality has dominated his view of the world and his view of Russia, then and now.

But it’s always surprising when Putin critics (like chess champion Boris Kasparov and, apparently, Nemtsov) continue to be able to have any voice at all.

You might ask Anna Politskyaya (shot to death at her apartment while unloading groceries) or Alexander Litvinenko (polonium 210 in his tea, in London) about that but, of course, you can’t.