But of course, that won’t happen so long as Putin has the power to do things like this:

The Russian authorities have charged opposition leader and former chess champion Garry Kasparov following clashes with police in Moscow.

He and other opposition figures were detained during a rally organised by Mr Kasparov’s Other Russia coalition.

Mr Kasparov was charged with resisting arrest and organising an unauthorised protest.

The incident came a week before polls which supporters of President Vladimir Putin are widely expected to win.

Other Russia brings together a broad coalition of mainstream politicians, leftists and nationalists, all of whom are opposed to the Kremlin.

(Via Slashdot.) I’ve said it before and will emphasize it again: It really is time for us to fundamentally rethink our policy towards Russia and to revive much of the negotiating strategy–inspired by the formulation and adoption of the Helsinki Accords of 1976–that helped the West not only negotiate favorable agreements vis