This BBC podcast is supported by ads outside the UK.
That's a question the BBC's Anna Foster is trying to unpack with a panel of expert guests in a special edition of the Global News Podcast from the BBC World Service.
Listen to the debate now.
Just search for the Global News Podcast wherever you get your BBC podcasts.
Photographers snap away as a handcuffed woman is brought in to learn her fate.
Uniformed guards escort 68-year-old Dr. Nadezhda Bujanova to a glass and metal cage.
It's absurd.
I can't get my head around what's happening, she tells a scrum of journalists.
The grey-haired pediatrician is charged with spreading false information.
about the Russian armed forces.
It's alleged that in a private conversation,
she expressed the view that Russian soldiers fighting in Ukraine are legitimate targets.
Dr. Bujanova protests her innocence.
But after the media are cleared from the court,
she's sentenced to five and a half years in prison.
The sentence is monstrously harsh, says her lawyer, Oskar Chertseev.
Even given what's happening in Russia today, we didn't expect this, he says.
In today's Russia, there's a hunt for the enemy within.
Anybody who's accused of voicing opposition to the war in Ukraine can face serious consequences.
That can mean losing your job,