NPR: Russia, Riches, and the Law

Marshall Goldman, Christopher Stewart, and Robert Amsterdam were featured on an hour-long discussion on Russia for Tom Ashbrook’s show On Point. Listen to the broadcast here.

Russia, Riches, and the Law Aired: Thursday, July 24, 2008 10-11AM ET By host Tom Ashbrook Mikhail Khodorkovsky was the richest man in Russia. Multi-billionaire. Oil-rich oligarch. No saint, but no worse a sinner, maybe, than many other Russian oligarchs. Then he crossed Vladimir Putin. Ended up in a cage, on trial, and then in a prison in Siberia. Gilded life — gone. Now, an American attorney is fighting to free Khodorkovsky. He says it’s Russia on trial here — and whether or not a now oil-rich Kremlin believes in the rule of law.

His story is a legal thriller where losers end up in Siberia, or dead. And the answers ripple well beyond Russia.This hour, On Point: Russia, riches, and the law.Guests· Christopher Stewart, contributing editor at Portfolio magazine and author of the recent profile of Robert Amsterdam, “Enemy of the State,” in the magazine’s August issue· Robert Amsterdam, the lead legal strategist in the campaign to free Mikhail Khodorkovsky, he’s an attorney specializing in “cause lawyering” and property rights in emerging markets and author of a blog on global politics.· Marshall Goldman, professor of economics emeritus at Wellesley College and author of “Petrostate: Putin, Power and the New Russia.”