PODOLSK, Russia — As a former Soviet factory director, Vladimir Melikhov survived the brutal business turf wars of the 1990s to make a fortune in construction. Now he devotes his energy and money to what, in the Russia of President Vladimir V. Putin, has become a truly risky enterprise: digging into Russian history. The museum, housed in a three-story building he built himself on his private estate in Podolsk, south of Moscow, makes no attempt to glorify Nazi collaborators. “What they really don’t like is that I make people think about what happened in the past and what is happening today,” Mr. Melikhov said. On Tuesday, a court in Podolsk found him guilty of illegal weapons possession and sentenced him to a year of “restricted freedom” — house arrest or some other limits on his movements.

Source: New York Times June 21, 2017 09:00 UTC