It was 2003, and I was sitting on the floor of my tiny New York apartment when I read that Boris Berezovsky, a Russian entrepreneur who was highly critical of President Vladimir Putin, had been arrested in Britain. I threw my newspaper across the room. It was the moment I realized that Russia would, tragically, be returning to a place of censorship, oppression and fear.
At least I was back in the United States, starting up a software company. My days living and working in Russia were far behind me. What was happening there could never happen here, I thought then.
