Russian authorities suppress legitimate political dissent by [ab]using the laws lobbied by Microsoft and the like, using the militia department created specifically to solve their problems. It's not like the authorities couldn't use other methods, but it doesn't mean that these "copyright holders" and their anti-piracy partnerships (BSA, НП ППП) didn't take part in creating this problem.
For skeptics, or those who's looking for more information, I'm talking about Civil Code of Russia, Part IV, in effect since January 1, 2008.
A lot of people talked about how it could be abused, and it seems, they were right.
BTW, while looking for information in English on this, I found this gem from http://www.ustr.gov/:
Poor enforcement of IPR [Intellectual Property Law] in the Russian Federation is a pervasive problem. In the November 2006 IPR Bilateral Agreement, Russia agreed to improve IPR enforcement while the United States agreed to step up IPR training programs and technical assistance for Russian customs and law enforcement officials. In 2009, the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office conducted six IPR training programs for Russian police, investigators, prosecutors, judges, and customs officials and in total trained 149 Russian law enforcement officials. Russian Customs has drafted an “IPR Enforcement Handbook”, which will be used by all Russian Federal Customs Service officers. Additional training programs are planned for 2010.
