> personally I know nobody with the former or the latter experience

I have personally received threats of having such experience, from a director of the company I was working for at that time. Happened in Moscow around 2010. The director was from FSB, unfortunately the company forgot to mention that detail in the job ad.

> emigrant press, who often do not have any firsthand Russia experience

LOL. The reason you only read about cases like that in emigrant press, local journalists don't want to be murdered in a forest.