The calm before the … what? Grigory Pasko, journalist Если Вы хотите прочитать оригинал данной статьи на русском языке, нажмите сюда. Usually, there is a calm before a storm. In the glass that is Russia’s turbid and muddy life, which the leadership of the country calls “the development of democratic processes and the further strengthening of the economy”, there can’t be a storm in principle any more: all the institutions of democracy have been suppressed, rallies and marches have effectively been banned, the opposition is splintered and atomized, the media are controlled… Against this background, with the arrival of the new president there all of a sudden arose expectations that perhaps something new might take place with the «YUKOS affair». Where could these expectations have come from? The investigative isolator facility (SIZO) in Chita where Khodorkovsky and Lebedev are presently being held. (Photo by Grigory Pasko)