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Here is the analytical difficulty. By putting Russia and China into one category, "autocracies," we obscure the vast difference between the two. Russia's media, though operating under censorship, is unarguably subject to fewer restrictions than the Chinese media.
Regime criticism is actually fairly common in the print media in Russia. @BBCSteveR does a great job monitoring Russian newspapers. Check out his #ReadingRussia feed to get a better sense. Here's a recent tweet: . This would be unthinkable in China.
Russia has a much more vibrant civil society than China. Now, you might say: what about the brutal riot police crackdown on the demonstrators last summer. Yes, there was that. As someone who participated in these demonstrations, I can say: the crackdown was brutal and scary.
