[Note from the editor: On 11 July, the Chita Oblast Court satisfied a petition of the Investigative Committee alongside the Procuracy (ICP) of the Russian Federation to extend the pre-trial detention of former Yukos head Mikhail Khodorkovsky until Nov. 2. On July 14th, this same court plans to examine an analogous petition of the investigation in relation to Platon Lebedev. It’s not hard to guess that it too will be satisfied. In the near future, the Ingodinsky District Court of Chita may commence the latest examination of a cassational appeal by Platon Lebedev on the falsification of the criminal case file against him. In his latest dispatch, our Russian correspondent Grigory Pasko takes a look at the methods used by the prosecutors and investigators, at times severely pushing the envelope of the law, with the aim of putting additional pressure on accused and their defenders.] The “trifles” of life Grigory Pasko, journalist There are in the papers that Russian investigators of the MVD, FSB and procurators, as well as court secretaries (naturally, with the silent blessing of the judges themselves), fill out about their victims certain “trifles” that literally poison life for persons being investigated, accused, or convicted, as well as for their lawyers. In reality, these “trifles” are the grossest violation of criminal-procedural legislation. But, despite this, they have existed for decades, and representatives of the investigation of the MVD, FSB and procuracy are in no hurry to get rid of them. Because they’ve gotten accustomed to lawlessness. Because they know: the state is on their side – on the side of lawlessness.