World Watch: Cops and robbers, Russian-style
It seemed as though things couldn't get any worse for Mikhail Khodorkovsky. After getting thrown behind bars on tax evasion charges almost a year ago, his multibillion-dollar oil company, Yukos, was slowly dismantled by the Russian government, and the bulk of its assets was transferred to state control after Khodorkovsky's conviction.
And then, like a venerable Russian tragedy, things got worse.
According to his lawyers, the appeal hearing was scheduled with little warning after Khodorkovsky signaled his intent to run in December's Parliamentary elections. His appeal was denied last week (rendering his candidacy null) and within hours of the hearing, plainclothes police visited the hotel room of Khodorkovsky's Canadian lawyer and told him to leave Russia–for good. State prosecutors then filed a motion to disbar at least eight Russian lawyers on Khodorkovsky's legal team.
One obvious question remained: Why so much drama?
The implicit pact between Vladimir Putin and the oligarchs was this: Keep your riches but don't challenge the president directly. Khodorkovsky is said to have been arrested in the first place because he loudly criticized Putin and was organizing his political opposition.
While many concede that the oil magnate may indeed be guilty of fraudulent activity–he made his billions like the rest of Russia's oligarchs through the rigged privatization schemes of the early 1990s–the way his case has been handled by the Russian authorities stirred doubts about the integrity of justice in Putin's Russia. Why use thugs in black ski masks? If Khodorkovsky is indeed guilty, why not convict him with the full (and transparent) power of the law?
Observers say this is the way the business is now done in Putin's Russia.
"I call it the Putin restoration," says Leon Aron, director of Russian studies at the American Enterprise Institute, referring to the government's tactics. "[It is] in part to satisfy people's need for the familiar after years of turbulence, and in part to exchange newly found freedom for economic growth and physical security, but it's an illusion–you don't get wealth by giving up liberty."
The tycoon's lawyers may bring the case before the European Court of Human Rights, but as long as Khodorkovsky sits in jail, it looks like Putin will have the last laugh.
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