On May 7th, 2008 – one year ago today – Dmitry Medvedev assumed the office of the Presidency of Russian Federation.  Luke Harding at the Guardian reviews his first year in office, stopping by the second trial of Mikhail Khodorkovsky:

Earlier last month, while pondering Medvevev’s anniversary, and whether we should believe anything he says, I dropped into the trial in Moscow of the former oligarch Mikhail Khodorkovsky. Khodorkovsky, the ex-CEO of the oil company Yukos, is in court again, this time charged with embezzlement and money laundering. Khodorkovsky, together with his business partner Platon Lebedev, was sitting inside a glass cage; he cut a composed if etiolated figure. Seven burly guards armed with pistols and Kalashnikovs stood inside the courtroom – presumably in the unlikely event that Khodorkovsky tried to escape.

Khodorkovksy’s parents sat in the front row. Just before the session started, a guard came up to Khodorkovsky’s elderly father and took away his chair.