In the 18th century, Russian Emperor Peter the Great regularly had his detractors tortured, exiled to Siberia and executed, sometimes for as little as directing “unseemly speech” at the sovereign. In the mid-1930s, Josef Stalin used fabricated charges of treason and coerced confessions to purge potential rivals, including many prominent Old Bolsheviks who were subjected to public show trials. Russian President Vladimir Putin’s current fight against his perceived enemies — both inside and