The Wrong Prisoner
Despite its cavalier attitude toward public safety during the recent wildfires, it is wrong to say that the Russian government does not care about its citizens. For example, over the past several years the authorities have deployed the full force of its diplomatic corps to come to the aid of one Russian citizen, whom they say was unlawfully arrested and imprisoned in a foreign country. You'd be impressed by the blood, sweat, and tears shed by the Foreign Ministry to assist this political prisoner, and blown away by this exceedingly high level of consular service.
But then when you realize that in fact the prisoner is an arms dealer nicknamed the "Merchant of Death" who maintains very close ties to the Deputy Prime Minister Igor Sechin, it begins to make more sense why Mikhail Khodorkovsky hasn't received similar support from the organs of the state.
The decision last week by a court in Thailand to finally extradite Viktor Bout to the United States, which will allegedly take place today, was surprising in many respects, not least for the tremendous efforts extended on behalf of the Russian government to persuade the Thai authorities to repatriate their man.
Various media have reported that Russia offered Thailand a wide variety of business deals, discounted energy, and arms in exchange for releasing Bout, while other bloggers in Thailand have speculated that there might have been an improper or potentially embarrassing connection to the royal family.
Last year, when a lower court in Thailand ruled against the U.S. request for extradition of Bout, it cited that Bangkok did not consider the FARC rebel group of Colombia as a "terrorist" organization - representing a very strange ruling that many felt was influenced by Russia's intense lobbying effort.
In response, the Americans got very aggressive in pressuring the Thai government to hand him over, raising the issue to the Ambassador in Washington, and requesting that other countries raise the issue in their discussions with the local authorities.
Journalist and author Douglas Farah has proposed many theories as to why Russia is working so hard to prevent the world's most famous arms dealer from appearing in U.S. court: "He could likely tell a great deal about the Russian-led networks that continue to arm jihadi movements in Somalia and Yemen. He also likely knows how the Russian military intelligence and arms structure works, including its interests from Iran to Venezuela and elsewhere. His knowledge base, although he is only 43 years old, goes back more than two decades and possibly extends to the heart of the Russian campaigns around the globe."
Of course this isn't the first time that the Kremlin applies its powers to liberate the guilty and imprison the innocent. They refused any and all legal cooperation with the UK's investigation of Andrei Lugovoi in the murder of Alexander Litvinenko. They gave preferential early release to General Budanov, a man convicted on raping and killing a young Chechen girl (the lawyer for the girl's family, Stanislav Markelov, was subsequently murdered for complaining about it). A number of powerful mobsters with close ties to their colleagues in government have also received lenient treatment, while the team of deep cover spies arrested in the United States come home to a hero's welcome.
So you can't say that Russia doesn't care about its prisoners at home and abroad, despite the fact that 90% of them contract disease while incarcerated. Russia will fight tooth and nail for its imprisoned citizens ... so long as they are also friends of the siloviki, instead of their victims.
By James Kimer, Guest Commentator to the Khodorkovsky and Lebedev Communications Center