Russian Media Crackdown Gaining Attention

Today's Wall Street Journal brings word of a troubling blow against press freedom in Russia: "An English-language newspaper in Moscow famed for lampooning Russian and Western officialdom has shut down after it fell under the scrutiny of the government for its raucous content. The demise of Moscow's Exile newspaper is the latest sign of the homogenization of the press within Russia, where an official crackdown on dissent has led to the self-censorship of many publications." Of course, that won't come as news to you if you've been following Exile editor Mark Ames' dispatches from the front. If you've missed them, you can read them here.