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In Russia, I Learned, Threats Were Always Real

It started with a weekday interview in an office near the Moscow River. The man was a murderer, it was said, but when I asked about the crime, he smirked and said he was framed. I remember his shoes, pointy and shined like glass.

I published a lot of articles as Moscow bureau chief for The Los Angeles Times, but this is one story I never wrote: About the problem that began with that 2008 interview and unfolded gradually over years — slowly enough to create the illusion that nothing was happening.

Russian power has a tendency to work that way.