Perhaps Russia’s prosecutors and their silovik owners are packing in the fun before Vladimir Putin moves over to the premiership and Dmitry Medvedev assumes the presidency – but whatever is happening, legal nihilism appears to be deepening in Russia since the election, not abating. Case in point, today the Moscow Times reports that the lawyer Boris Kuznetsov is being charged in absentia with divulging state secrets, though he is safely living in political asylum in the United States. His lawyer Viktor Parshutkin is quoted in the article: “The charges against Kuznetsov are groundless. According to Russian law, any document that testifies that someone’s rights were violated cannot be a government secret.” Kuznetsov faces this farce of a trial for doing nothing beyond carrying out his lawful duty to defend his client, the former Sen. Levon Chakhmakhchyan, who was the target of a bribery investigation sting operation by the FSB. Kuznetsov later filed a complaint that the state security officials were using an illegal wiretap against Chakhmakhchyan, which was the beginning of all these problems (see my post from last summer). With the possible exception of Musharraf’s Pakistan, it is hard to think of a more dangerous or hostile environment for lawyers than Russia.