Free Republic

Russian authorities were accused of turning the clock back to Stalinist times yesterday after a group of human rights activists was found guilty of having an "unsanctioned" afternoon tea party with two Westerners. Pro-democracy groups immediately condemned the ruling — the first made under internationally criticised legislation passed last year to restrict the freedoms of civil society — as an attempt by the Kremlin to stifle free speech in Russia. Nine members of Froda, a group that campaigns for ethnic minority rights, were found guilty of holding an illegal meeting and fined after they had tea with two German students...