Anna Pivovarchuk  | As Western media focuses on the Crimean crisis, Russia intensifies its assault on civil society. At the end of January, TV Rain, Russia’s independent news channel, was taken off air.On February 24, over 200 people were detained for protesting the verdict in the Bolotnaya case that saw seven antigovernment demonstrators sentenced for assault. One of them publishes  a blog about investigations of money laundering and theft by government officials, It was recently blocked.