When President Trump meets Vladimir Putin in Osaka next week for the G-20, he should remember that for all its international bluster, Russia is sliding into a black hole of crime, corruption, and illegality—and that more and more Russians are taking note. This was nowhere more evident than in the protests that erupted in Moscow earlier this month after local police planted cocaine and other drugs in the apartment of investigative journalist Ivan Golunov, who exposed high level corruption in the Moscow burial business and among the relatives of a Moscow deputy mayor.
Due to the protests, Golunov was acquitted and case closed, but the story does not end there. Corruption in law enforcement and in courts is choking Russia’s economic growth.