For seventy years Russia arrested, killed, deported, terrorized and pilloried anyone who dared think for themselves. Lies which everyone knew were ludicrous nonsense were paraded as truth, and everyone had to go along with the charade because “resistance was futile”. When that terrible regime finally ended, operatives of the KGB/FSB, the primary arm of terror that upheld it all, shifted smoothly into positions of control in the “new” Russia, and they along with their hand-picked protégés still run the place, which is why some of Stalin’s lies still serve as official Russian policy. The government has not required a single person who ever committed crimes against humanity in the name the Soviet state to answer for the actions in a court of law. And now suddenly Medvedev calls on Russians to assume responsibility for their own national affairs! The call is justified – Russia will achieve nothing at all like its potential until at long last its people shake off their terror-ingrained Soviet-era passivity and cynicism. However, Medvedev has to first convince his long-suffering countrymen that he is serious. At the moment, judging by their response as reported in much of the Russian media, they simply don’t believe him.