Nothing is consistent about Russia.
Freedom of speech and artistic expression are accompanied by deadly attacks on journalists, which are routinely condemned and routinely left unsolved. The Soviet empire imploded without a shot, but two wars in Chechnya have more than made up for the pacific nature of the earlier collapse. Russian anti-Semitism today exhibits similarly inconsistent dimensions. Three times in recent months, President Vladimir Putin has made unprecedented goodwill gestures toward Russia's Jews. In September, he visited the opening of the country's first Jewish community center.