https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anna_Politkovskaya
Sadly the list of journalists killed because they didn't want to sell out is long and growing steadily.
https://www.amazon.com/Journalism-Worth-Dying-Final-Dispatch...
One thing that struck me about the book was how everyone in the Russian system felt like they had to lie, because no one knew who was in charge.
Members of the Russian government beat, tortured and occasionally killed other members of the Russian government. Prosecutors eventually became terrified that if they went after anyone who was well connected, they could end up dead. Yet it was impossible to know who was well connected. Putin benefitted from the chaos, he was able to make it work for him. We see this a lot with the current wave of authoritarianism; leaders are rarely setting themselves up as absolute rulers like Stalin or Hitler, instead, they are making themselves invisible, and relying on chaos so they can maintain power. Right now Putin is fighting for a new Constitution which will make the formal leader of Russia extremely weak -- but he's planning on handing that role to someone else. Putin will continue to control things from the background.
Kaczynski, in Poland, is not a rational individual, but he has very much fine tuned what seems to be the modern model for authoritarian rule. I suspect 25 years from now we will look back and see that Kaczynski's style of rule has become more frequent than Orban's style of rule. Orban is setting himself up to be shot down. Kaczynski hides in the background.
The absolute lack of sophistication in their messaging[0] is turning large demographics away from politics, and in many cases, the country.
[0]: They explain COVID-19 as an evil plan by George Soros, of course. The opportunity didn't occur to them for a long time, but the brilliance prevailed.
Edit: Found link to report on it in english. https://www.reuters.com/article/us-russia-politics-idUSKBN20...
(name of an album by postrock band Explosions in the Sky https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S3H8y4ohO-s)