Barring a likely delay or rescheduling, Judge Viktor Danilkin is due to begin reading the verdict in the second trial of Mikhail Khodorkovsky and Platon Lebedev on December 15.

It’s no use waiting for an acquittal or even a very mild verdict from Judge Danilkin: he’s not the one writing the most important part of the verdict, which is the term of sentencing. From the very start of the prosecution of the Yukosites and Khodorkovsky, it was clear who is standing behind all these no-holds-barred actions. It’s exactly the same way now, with these same people hanging in the shadows, heavily and obnoxiously breathing down the timorous nape of Judge Danilkin’s neck.

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If you’re counting on a mild sentence, remember the gestures, the words and the look of Vladimir Putin, when he answered Adam Michnik’s question and when he uttered his classic slander – “their hands are covered in blood”. A disinterested person could not answer such a general, garden-variety question about a not-so-garden-variety event – the prosecution of the one-time richest person of Russia – with such fury.