Below is our exclusive translation of an important opinion article by Sonja Margolina published in the German newspaper Welt am Sonntag. The original article can be found here and on our German blog. What We Can Learn from the Kremlin’s Prisoners By Sonja Margolina Welt am Sonntag, February 2, 2008, page 10 Sonja Margolina asks why there is hardly any protest throughout the West against the scandalous treatment of political opponents in Vladimir Putin’s Russia Vassily Aleksanian had been sitting in a Moscow remand prison for two years, when news of his deadly illness became public. The 36-year-old Harvard graduate was previously a lawyer for the now nationalized oil corporation Yukos. “The examining magistrate for the Procuracy General, Karimov, recommended a deal after my arrest,” Aleksanian told the Supreme Court in January. “He said: The Procuracy General understands that your situation is grave and that you urgently need medical treatment. However, we need your confession, because we otherwise cannot prove the charges against Khodorkovsky and Lebedev. If you provide testimony that fits the investigation, we will set you free.”