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As the G20 Gather in London, Common Sense Goes on Trial in Moscow

As the G20 gather in London, in Russia a so-called ‘second’ trial against Mikhail Khodorkovsky and Platon Lebedev begins. While the political persecution of these two men has been widely seen in the world as a prime example of Russian ‘legal nihilism,’ it remains to be seen whether the upcoming trial will serve as a symbol of change in Russia and of President Medvedev’s commitment to the Rule of Law.

As the preliminary hearings, which started in the Khamovnichesky Court in Moscow on March 3, have demonstrated, the prosecutors’ new allegations against Khodorkovsky and Lebedev are unprecedented in monetary scale and in the high level of distortion of both facts and laws. Khodorkovsky and Lebedev are accused of embezzling the entire oil production of Yukos over a six-year period and “laundering” the majority of the proceeds. The allegations are absurd, and completely refuted by defense evidence, which investigators refuse to admit into the case file.