As a side remark, I am amused (and simultaneously dismayed, since it is a reflection on the state of our culture) to hear how Anderson Cooper and others refer to the ruffians as “thugs.” It took to be personally roughed up for them to recognize scum for what it is. Please observe, however, that a journalist is murdered in Russia at a rate of 2 a year for the last decade -— has those in power, or the thugs that actually execute the opposition, ever been called thugs on our TV? Does the American public know the true face of modern Russia and its rulers? Of course not: the Russian savage government is supposed to be romanticized at the moment.