TODAY: Khodorkovsky receives maximum sentence; decision met with flurry of international criticism, talk of court under pressure.  The Kremlin urges calm in Korean peninsula; record drug confiscation; Chapman TV appearance; Strategy 31 protests scheduled for today; protesters pessimistic about outcome

The Khodorkovsky trial has culminated in the defendant receiving the maximum sentence of 14 years in prison; the new term will be dated from his arrest in 2003, which means that he will be released in 2017.  Business partner Platon Lebedev received 13 years and 6 months.  The verdict has been called ‘cruel and absurd’ by rights campaigner Lyudmila Alexeyeva.  To see a run down of the numerous critical responses, both domestic and international, see Reuters.  The pair will not seek a pardon.  US State Department spokesman Mark Toner has said that the US remains ‘concerned by the allegations of serious due process violations, and what appears to be an abusive use of the legal system for improper ends’.  In addition, a senior Obama administration official has implied that the sentencing of Khodorkovsky may ‘complicate’ Russia’s bid to join the WTO.