We were very impressed with this article by Yana Yakovleva published in today’s Moscow Times, which echoes many of the points made regarding the presumption of innocence in Robert Amsterdam’s recent Wall Street Journal contribution.  Yakovleva is a businesswoman who once spent seven months imprisoned in pre-trial detention under false charges – a common practice used by criminal elements within the Russian government to steal, extort, and intimidate for private gain – something we’ve seen from Yukos to Hermitage to even BP.  She has formed the new NGO Business Solidarity to lobby for legal changes to protect entrepreneurs from the predators of the judiciary – and they sure have their work cut out for them.  (Check out Greg White’s profile of Yakovleva in the WSJ.)

At a meeting with Prosecutor General Yury Chaika on the professional holiday honoring the employees of prosecutors’ offices, Medvedev reminded Chaika of the law that he signed limiting the use of arrests against criminals in tax-evasion cases. It is notable that the president used that word “criminals,” which I doubt was a slip of the tongue. Until guilt has been proven in a court of law, nobody has the right to refer to that person as a criminal. What happened to Russia’s adherence to the principal of presumption of innocence?