Newsletter September 2012
Khodorkovsky compares the Pussy Riot trial to the Inquisition
Many eyes were on Russia last month as the Khamovnichesky Court, the same tribunal where Mikhail Khodorkovsky’s second trial took place from 2009 to 2010, was the scene of proceedings against three members of the Russian punk band Pussy Riot. The celebrity feminist punks were “on trial for blaspheming Putin” – as stated by the Financial Times – in a controversial minute-long protest in Moscow’s Christ the Saviour cathedral last February. Ahead of their conviction, Khodorkovsky sympathised with the band members’ experiences in pre-trial detention and particularly in the cramped glass-and-steel courtroom “aquarium”, which had been built for him and his co-accused business partner Platon Lebedevafter the European Court of Human Rights declared that keeping Khodorkovsky in a cage during his first trial was inhuman, degrading and illegal.Khodorkovsky called on concerned people to support the women and bemoaned the state for “profaning our Russia with its complete and utter lack of conscience”. Recalling Russia’s failure to establish the rule of law, Khodorkovsky declared: “We have been deprived of an honest and independent judiciary, of the opportunity to defend ourselves and to protect people from lawlessness. But what we can do, if we happen to recognise those who are perpetrating arbitrariness for money and privileges is explain to them and to those around…why we do not respect them…and why, on the contrary, we are going to stand against them.”In response, members of Pussy Riot thanked Khodorkovsky for his words of support, with Ekaterina Samutsevich stating: “I hope that our common cause to liberate the truth will be fruitful and we will find ourselves in a freer country than it is now.”On the day the Pussy Riot trial concluded with a guilty verdict and two-year prison terms, Sueddeutsche Zeitung published an interview with Khodorkovsky. Commenting on the case, Khodorkovsky stated: “There is no question that the command came down from the very top…the only thing I would consider fair would be a verdict of not guilty.” Khodorkovsky noted that Russian President Vladimir Putin, like other autocrats, suffered from “a loss of touch with reality.”
Prison’s People – The Aggrieved
In the latest of Khodorkovsky’s prison chronicles published by Russia’s New Times, Khodorkovsky described the dispossessed of Russia’s prisons: “In jail they also call them the ‘informals’, the ‘downthrown’, and a whole bunch of other, far less savoury sounding names. They are the jail’s ‘caste of untouchables’, with whom you can’t sit at the same table, eat from the same dishes, use the same items, etc. Their word does not carry any weight in a ‘disagreement’ within the jail collective; that is, they have no cause to count on any protection…Today, fortunately, these ‘understandings’ are gradually eroding, but there is much that still remains as it always was. Jail is a very conservative place…Nobody believes the courts any more, and any person can explain his sentence as having been the result of someone’s ordinary commercial interest.”
Khodorkovsky Supports Khimki Mayoral Bid of Moscow Protest Leader Chirikova
Khodorkovsky lent his support to environmental activist Yevgeniya Chirikova in her bid to become mayor of the city of Khimki, bordering Moscow. Chirikova became famous in recent years leading a movement against the construction of a highway through the protected Khimki forest, and she played a significant role in the Moscow protests that followed the December 2011 parliamentary elections. Khodorkovsky stated: “I believe that Chirikova is a brave and responsible person: she and her team are ready and able to solve [Khimki’s] problems…I believe that in the current situation politicians, political and social structures that oppose the present federal and local government could consolidate in support of this candidate. Then – and only then – the opposition will demonstrate to voters that they can use the new legislative opportunities to fight effectively for power in order to offer a real alternative…”
Chirikova responded to Khodorkovsky’s statement via Twitter, thanking him for his inspiration and stating that he has shown again that he can take courageous public stances even from prison.
Khodorkovsky’s Son Speaks Out on U.S.-Russia Relations
Case Developments
Inquiry on Khodorkovsky Case to be Organised by Presidential Commissioner for Entrepreneurs’ Rights
Following the statement from Boris Titov, Russia’s newly-appointed Presidential Commissioner for Entrepreneurs’ Rights, that the only thing standing in the way of a public inquiry into the verdict in Khodorkovsky’s second case was a lack of initiative on Khodorkovsky’s part, Khodorkovsky wrote to Titov with a call to conduct a public inquiry. Khodorkovsky requested an inquiry that would determine whether or not the verdict was sound from both legal and economic perspectives, and for the inquiry’s conclusions to lead to action. Titov’s response, which can be found in full here, set forth the next steps to be taken in organising an inquiry.
Khodorkovsky’s second trial has already been the subject of a public inquiry: in 2011, Russia’s Presidential Council for Human Rights found the verdict to be illegal and subject to annulment. To date the authorities have largely ignored the Council’s findings and recommendations. For more, see the “Case Reviews” section of Khodorkovsky.com.
Lebedev’s Sentence Cut Short; Prosecution Appeals
In August the Arkhangelsk Regional District Court in the town of Velsk – where Platon Lebedev is serving his prison term – ruled that Lebedev should be freed in March 2013, reducing his thirteen-year sentence by three years and four months. Lebedev and Khodorkovsky have been co-defendants in two trials since their 2003 arrests, receiving the same verdicts and sentences. Lebedev applied earlier this year for a reduction in his sentence. Velsk prosecutors are appealing against the court’s ruling. Details of the prosecutors’ challenge against the reduced sentence can be found here.
