Today the BBC has an insightful piece detailing some of the obstacles entrepreneurs in Putin’s Russia face.  As the case of Mikhail Khodorkovsky or Vera Trifonova (inter alia) suggest, it is hardly an inviting climate – businesspeople regularly face colossal bribes or the risk of prison sentences. As Rebecca Kesby points out, the recent appointment of a business ombudsman for entrepreneurs rights is designed to improve the lamentable state of affairs.  However, an ombudsman can scarcely guarantee that justice is served, and it is Russia’s impartial judiciary, she points out, that is the real problem: