Different people may hold different opinions about Russia’s administration of law and justice.  Given that we are involved in a case featuring a political prisoner undergoing a second show trial, obviously we hold a strongly critical opinion of Russian law enforcement.  But there are many other cases that lead us to believe that this experience is not isolated.

Take the case of the murdered Forbes journalist Paul Klebnikov, whose muckraking and uncompromising journalism took a much harder look at the oligarchs and private sector business compared to his relative light touch in writing about the government.  Yet despite the stark differences with, say, Anna Politkovskaya, it is the Kremlin’s procuracy which has somehow failed to deliver justice in the case a full five years after the murder.  Next week, July 9th, will mark the fifth anniversary of this tragic event, and today Reuters is reporting on a leaked legal document from the Russian authorities which has halted the investigation.  Ever since the 2006 acquittal of two suspects, the family has essentially been kept in the dark by the authorities, and were not informed about new evidence or progress of the investigation.