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From: MSN NicknameEagle_wng  (Original Message)    Sent: 5/17/2005 4:32 PM
17.05.2005
It is really Putin who is on trial before the world

Sooner or later in the life of a world leader an event comes along that defines their time in power. For Margaret Thatcher it was the miners’ strike, for Richard Nixon, those tapes. And for Russia’s president Vladimir Putin, the event that is likely to cast his image for the outside world is the verdict in the trial of the oil tycoon Mikhail Khodorkovsky.

Since coming to power in 2000, Mr Putin, a former KGB colonel, has shown two images to the world. The first is a progressive democrat, full of promises of reform and support for the law. The second is an increasing authoritarianism as he gathers the levers of power inside the Kremlin.

… this trial, the verdict of which continues in a Moscow court house today, puts his presidency to the acid test.

Until now, the outside world has not known which image to believe — democrat or autocrat. But this trial, the verdict of which continues in a Moscow court house today, puts his presidency to the acid test.

Right from the start, the prosecution of the former head of Yukos, Russia’s biggest oil company, has smacked of a personal vendetta ordered by the Russian president.

First, while Russia has many billionaire tycoons with shady pasts, only Mr Khodorkovsky has been targeted with such thoroughness by investigators. Secondly, his arrest — by armed police in a snow-swept Siberian airport two years ago — came just as Mr Khodorkovsky had entered politics and was funding parties opposed to Mr Putin.

Then there is the trial itself. Despite this being Russia’s most talked-about case, it is held in the tiny Meshchansky courthouse, with room for just eight journalists — in effect keeping most of the press out.

Amnesty International has complained of a «significant political context» to the case, criticising the judges for hearing much of the evidence in private.

Most controversial of all was the unexplained delay to the verdict.

Originally the three judges were to have given their conclusions on 27 April, but those arriving at the court that day found a note stuck to the courthouse door announcing a delay until 16 May.

No reason for the delay was given, either then or since, fuelling suspicions that it was ordered by the Kremlin to avoid embarrassment when foreign dignitaries turned up for last week’s Victory Day celebrations.

Whatever the explanation, this is no way to convince the world that you run a transparent legal system.

More questions have dogged the parallel assault on Mr Khodorkovsky’s company.

Once Russia’s biggest oil company, accounting for nearly a fifth of national production, Yukos was hit by a $10 billion tax demand.

When it struggled to pay, the state ordered its production arm to be sold at auction last December.

Eyebrows were raised when the state fixed the price at about half the value the market put on the company. They were raised still further when that state awarded the winning bid to itself. To the markets, this looked like a back-door re-nationalisation, and a clumsy one at that.

The Russian president already holds most of the levers of power. His United Russia party controls parliament and follows Kremlin instructions. Television companies are under state control and elections for regional governors have been scrapped — Mr Putin now appoints them himself.

The acquisition of Yukos adds economic clout to the Kremlin’s political monopoly.

But the outside world is unnerved. Since the Khodorkovsky case began, capital flight — the movement of rich people’s cash out of the country — has tripled. Businesses are worried after BP, Russia’s biggest outside investor, was last month slapped with an unexpected billion dollar back-tax bill last month.

Just as transparency is the cornerstone of the law, so the law is the cornerstone of democracy.

Just as transparency is the cornerstone of the law, so the law is the cornerstone of democracy. Either the judges deliver a fair and transparent verdict, or they deliver something else.

Last Friday, prosecutors hinted at one «something else» — announcing new charges against Mr Khodorkovsky. To many, this seems calculated to keep him stuck in jail for many more years in yet another trial.

It is still possible that the verdict will be just, that the evidence will fit the crime. But if not — if justice is not seen to be done, it will do great damage to Mr Putin. Already the US has turned against him. President George Bush bracketed his recent visit to Moscow with criticism of Russia’s failing democracy. A poor result today may convince Washington — and foreign investors — that the law in Russia is too weak to be trusted.

Relations with the West have been cool since last winter when Mr Putin backed Ukraine’s government, during the so-called Orange Revolution, even after international monitors accused it of election-rigging.

Paradoxically, while a murky verdict that keeps Mr Khodorkovsky under lock and key today would strengthen the Kremlin’s hold on power, it will greatly weaken the state that Mr Putin is sworn to protect.
Chris Stephen / The Scotsman