In Putin's Russia, corrupt people get promoted to positions of power and influence, regardless - or in a sense, because - of their dealings with organised crime. People like Nikolai Ovchinnikov who, in February 2003, was appointed by Putin as Deputy Minister of Internal Affairs and Head of the Central Agency for Combating Organised Crime.

This was a farce.

Ovchinnikov was a policeman who had risen to influence in Yekaterinburg in the Urals by corruptly allying himself with a gangster Pavel Fedulev. Ovchinnikov had placed his police-force at the disposal of Fedulev, and it was used time and again to enforce Fedulev's wishes, seize factories, and prevent the execution of justice, law and order.

Fedulev disposed of enemies and rivals ruthlessly, but had forged such corrupt links with the police and local judiciary that he could do almost anything. Any judges who refused to comply found themselves fired or beaten up or both. And the corruption came from high up. Organised crime had infiltrated the whole legal system in the province, and the law-enforcers. When Fedulev illegally seized the Uralkhimmash Corporation - one of Russia's largest engineering enterprises - he did so with armed police and the connivance of the local judiciary.

Crimes under Ovchinnikov's oversight (including the murders of close associates and opponents of Fedulev) were never investigated, and the rule of law was basically subject to the hidden orders of organised crime. People who complained were ignored, or their appeals to the judiciary blocked. And the outcome: organised criminals like Fedulev became fabulously rich and influential. And those in power in the police and judiciary benefitted from bribery, while becoming increasingly dependent on the criminals they should have been pursuing.

This Ovchinnikov was then promoted by Putin to lead the country's main agency for dealing with the very orgamised crime he had been involved with. Unbelievable.

But then, Fedulev and his cronies are active supporters of Putin and underwrite the Urals section of Putin's United Russia party. Putin in turn flew to Yekaterinburg to lay a foundation stone of a new factory Fedulev is involved with, and made it clear that this loyalty was reciprocated - excellent PR for Fedulev's continuing expansion of his criminal empire.

Although post-Soviet Russia is, on the surface, supposed to be democratic with an independent judiciary, the reality is that the constitutional freedoms and safeguards are violated with the utmost cynicism. The law can be bought if you have money and influence, and individual judges who refuse to cowtow face the fear of reprisals, the ruining of their careers, or sacking by their superiors.

In her book 'Putin's Russia', between pages 145 and 193, Anna Politkovskaya used all her journalistic skills and honesty to detail a devastating indictment of people like Fedulev, Ovchinnikov, the provincial law chief Ivan Ovcharuk, and corrupt judges. She demonstrates not only the specifics of how property was seized illegally, with the connivance of the authorities, but how the only way to survive and advance is often to work within this criminal sub-culture.

More seriously, she illustrated the symbiotic relationship that exists between Putin's appointees and the criminals who subvert Russia's young democracy. Putin's macho culture and political cynicism turns a blind eye in the system-wide corruption taking place at all levels of society. His own power and survival depends on the support of wealthy oligarchs. Principles of democracy, justice and the law are necessary 'slogans', but increasingly in Russia today things get done because certain people have power, not because they are right or wrong.

In truth, Russian society has been corrupted and infected by criminals and political cynicism, and true justice and the rule of law are often suspended. Thugs and cronies are appointed to positions of high office.

And Anna Politkovskaya - who recorded scrupulous details of this corruption and social decay - bravely, honestly, unwaveringly - is dead. Murdered.