The long awaited, historic trial of Yukos shareholders vs. Russia is underway in Strasbourg.  We’re all very curious to see how the Kremlin’s high powered legal team will defend the theft of what was once Russia’s largest and most transparent company.  From the AFP:

“This was an expropriation by any other name,” Yukos lawyer Piers Gardner told the court in Strasbourg at the opening of the one-day hearing.

It was the first time in the decade-long saga that Yukos and Russian lawyers met face-to-face in an independent court, whose ruling will be binding on Russia as a member country.