Shocking developments coming out of Russia highlight the true and horrifying extent of the neo-Soviet cracrackdown being finalized by the country’s proud KGB spy ruler Vladimir Putin.

Putin consolidates his dictatorship.The world now has clear evidence that Putin rigged Russia’s recent presidential elections to deliver overwhelming support to his handpicked successor Dmitri Medvedev. This came on the heels of purging all the significant rival candidates from the ballot. Putin has announced he will remain in power as prime minister even after his successor takes power, and will take on vast new powers in that office including directly controlling all regional and local government. Most recently, he’s announced he will also take control of Russia’s party of power, United Russia, just as was done in Soviet times.

Putin moves against the Internet. On April 11th, the Russian newspaper Kommersant (”the Merchant”) reported that “the Prosecutor General’s Office has sent in draft amendments to Russia’s lower house of Parliament, the State Duma. The text, in part, suggests rigid new standards for holding websites accountable, and asks for increased government control of religious education programs in an effort to fight racist and nationalist crimes.” Three days later, the Russia blog Fontanka.ru reported that officials of Russia’s media and communications agency believe that every wireless user must obtain permission and register their Wi-Fi devices before they can go online. The agency, Rossvyazokhrankultura (short for the Russian Mass Media, Communications and Cultural Protection Service), believes that it can lawfully confiscate wireless devices from anyone violating this directive.” First Putin goes after the content of the Internet, then the means of transmitting it. A ferocious neo-Soviet one-two punch. And that’s not all; a serious direct attack on individual bloggers is underway, with crushing fines and prison terms in the offing.

Putin crushes the arts. On April 13th, the Russian Sobkor@ru news agency reported that “the opening of an art exhibit titled Prison, Madness, Equality and Justice had been cancelled by local police and authorities in Western Russian city of Pskov. A a van-load of OMON riot police arrived at the scene. Law enforcement officers, led by the militsiya, arrested two people waiting to the show to begin.” Three days later the Moscow Times newspaper reported that playwright Natalia Pelevine had had her drama about the infamous Dubrovka theater attack canceled “moments after the curtain came down on the play’s first performance in Russia.” Apparently, it dared to identify the hostage takers as human beings, and this couldn’t be tolerated.

One must ask how these events differ from what occurred behind the Iron Curtain in the former USSR. Indeed, even during its worst days, the USSR wasn’t ruled by a proud KGB spy for such a long period, and there was no clear proof that the people of Russia had ratified the atrocities by election.

Perhaps the new iron curtain is worse than its predecessor.