To seek new or interesting ways to explain the decade-long erosion of independent free speech, expression or culture in Russia has become a repetitive and tiresome task. Under Putin, the country barely goes a day without the announcement of some new punitive, oppressive measure. But perhaps it has reached a highpoint of international interest now that all such measures are shrouded by the ongoing detention of activist and opposition figurehead Alexei Navalny, who was transferred to a prison hospital earlier in April and whose health is on a continuous downwards spiral. There are fewer international headlines related to that. The trial, of course, is about so much more than just drawings.