ABSTRACT
This chapter provides a hands-on approach to the informal games surrounding quasi-legal repression. Based on interview material from the field, it sorts and interprets the original perceptions of journalists, politicians, activists, and others who claim that they have been targeted by selective law enforcement. The chapter discusses why these individuals interpret a given case as political; what they see as the informal criteria for initiating the case; what they believe to be the purpose of the intervention; who they see as behind the prosecution; and how they think legal actors get the concrete message to crackdown in each case. On some accounts, the perceptions of the interviewees are key to the practice of selective law enforcement. It is for instance the perception of why a case has been initiated that determines the response, rather than the actual motivations behind it. On other issues, the chapter treats interviewee statements as informed opinions on how quasi-legal repression is organized in Putin's Russia.
