“The RAD accepted that the applicants experienced extortion demands from Russian police, which they had to pay in order to work. The RAD accepted that the applicants were singled out for these extortion payments because of their ethnic and national background,” said the judge. “In those circumstances, it was incumbent on the RAD to explain why this mistreatment at the hands of Russian state agents did not constitute persecution. The only explanation that the RAD provided was that the applicants’ physical or moral integrity were not threatened, but it is unclear to me how this conclusion is compatible with the acknowledgment that the harm feared by the applicants is extortion by state officials. Extortion and bribery are crimes that, by definition, involve some combination of threats, force, and coercion.”