About the Yukos Affair
"... [Will the court] understand that it is a court, and not a cheap instrument for raiders and corruptioneers? Will it help the President and the country? We'll see."
- Mikhail B. Khodorkovsky April 7, 2009
In 2003, former Head of Yukos Mikhail Khodorkovsky, and former Group Menatep Director Platon Lebedev, were arrested on politically-motivated charges that retroactively and unfairly asserted violations of tax and privatization laws. After a trial contaminated by grave procedural violations, Khodorkovsky and Lebedev were both found guilty on May 16, 2005, and were sent to Siberia to serve eight-year prison sentences. By October 2007 both men were eligible for release on parole under Russian law and practice, having been incarcerated for four years since their respective arrests.
However, in February 2007, absurd new charges of embezzlement and money laundering emerged, contradicting the original court rulings against the men and against Yukos. The intent of these sloppily-drafted new charges is to keep Khodorkovsky and Lebedev in jail and to stigmatize them with accusations of economic crime. A new trial against Khodorkovsky and Lebedev opened in Moscow in March 2009. It is clear that the prosecutors and investigators have a vested interest in a predetermined outcome for the trial and will exert enormous pressure on the judge to achieve that outcome.
There were two central motives behind the Kremlin's campaign against Khodorkovsky: eliminating him as a political opponent, and eliminating Yukos to increase the Kremlin's power and re-nationalize resources. The new charges further advance these objectives, by ensuring that Khodorkovsky and Lebedev are not released on parole (despite having served half of their original sentences), that Khodorkovsky has no opportunity to play an active role in shaping Russia's political future, and by legitimizing the past state campaign to dismantle Yukos and expropriate over $30 billion in Yukos assets.
A guilty verdict in the ongoing trial of Khodorkovsky and Lebedev will send a damaging message to the Russian people, Russian businesses, and to foreign investors, foreign governments and international tribunals, that the country is not ready to change. Russia's political and economic stability will remain in doubt. The release of Khodorkovsky and Lebedev will send the ultimate signal that Russia is changing. Anything less does not meet the demands of a nation that needs to bring itself out of political and economic crisis.
The trial of both men is now widely seen as the crucial test of President Medvedev's pledge to end "legal nihilism" in Russia.
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