From WNYC, this is NPR's on the media.

Bob Garfield is away.

I'm Brooke Ladstone, reporting this week from Russia.

An enemy turned friend, turned...

Well, our president has assured us that despite some recent nasty exchanges,

Russia is not our enemy.

And that's easy to see from the familiar shops, the bars, the aspirations

humming and buzzing in the streets of Moscow. Our Russia's story concerns free speech, where

independent media are muffled and where the murder of muckrakers, such as Kremlin

critic Anapolikovskyya, are mostly ignored. We flew into a city

awash in sunshine, music, money, and anxiety, at least for some. A lot's happened here

since Yeltsin stood down a coup from at top of tank, since Russia's roaring 90s when the

Rubell was dying and the independent press was being born on this perfect day in June,

a rally in Pushkin Square.

I ask a middle-aged woman, why are you here?

Because more can't take it.

She says, I'm here because I've run out of patience.

Changing policies are taking us backwards.

Our lives are going backwards.

Former chess champion, current anti-Putin activist Gary Kasparov and his allies,

have staged a series of protests like this one in several cities this year.

Despite an explicit policy of nonviolence, most have ended in bloody clashes with police.

...