Khodorkovsky & Lebedev Communications Center

Robert Amsterdam's blog posted a video interview with Dr. Ariel Cohen of the Heritage Foundation in which he comments on the second trial of Mikhail Khodorkovsky. Dr. Cohen remarks that Khodorkovsky is a symbol of Putin's swing toward confrontation and more repression, that his release would be a strong signal of a thaw (like Gorbachev bringing Sakarov back from Gorky), and that it would send an enormously positive signal for political and business relations as it would indicate that the security apparatus under some kind of political control.