A number of journalists have been calling me today about the release on bail (for 50 million rubles, mind you) of former Yukos general counsel Vasily Alexanyan.  Although I’m unreservedly pleased for Vasily and his family, I think we still need to curb our enthusiasm over whether this move symbolizes larger changes in Russia’s justice system.  Should we not expect a little more than just the release on bail of an innocent man  – whom the prosecutors have come within inches of murdering – for us to give a standing ovation for the court’s return to rule of law?  Sometimes it seems that the world has collectively resigned to the psychology of a battered spouse before Russia’s abuse of the law.

But, on the other hand, there is another decision which has been handed down this week which I believe symbolizes a much clearer break with the past – a genuinely rare moment in Basmanny justice.  It appears that the court, which became internationally famous during the first of the new show trials against Mikhail Khodorkovsky, has acquitted the political commentator Andrei Piontkovsky of the ridiculous charges of extremism he was facing for having published books and articles critical of the regime.  Dare we feel optimism for a growing independence of the judiciary?