I'm not here to defend Russia. But how is it fundamentally "worse" than any of say 100 other countries? Looking at most countries from the outside, they all loo

I'm not here to defend Russia. But how is it fundamentally "worse" than any of say 100 other countries? Looking at most countries from the outside, they all look okay. Not perfect, but not barbaric either. Once you start digging deeper, however, shit will hit the fan very hard in most parts of the world. You don't have to be in North Korea for that. Basic example: Singapore looks like a great developed country. But it's ranked just near Russia in Press Freedom Index. The ruling party (and it's a parliamentary republic) is ruling there for 10 years longer than Gaddafi has been ruling in Libya. Oops. It's just a question of scale. Small local problems go unnoticed by the world. If this particular story did not involve foreigners, you would have never heard about it.