I have widened the topic to Russian politics in general.
Here's a
disturbing article on Russian juries acquitting people who have committed hate crimes. Racist attacks have greatly increased in recent years and now juries are simply acquitting the attackers as if killing foreigners is not even a crime anymore.
*****
Vladimir Putin has pulled a Dubbya, he was having a press conference with Israeli President Moshe Katsav (who is currently accused of multiple rapes) and at the end as he was about to leave, he said:
"What a mighty man he turns out to be! He raped 10 women - I would never have expected this from him. He surprised us all - we all envy him!"
The comment was only meant for the presidential entourage but journalists overheard it.
The Kremlin admits the Russian President said that, but says that you have to understand Russian to get the finesse of the comment.
BBC