November 12, 2013
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The second sentence was a shocker. The judge handed down a conviction totally unsupported by evidence, and the showcase trial destroyed any remaining belief in the letter of Russian law. So what? It made the point even clearer: You don’t mess with the Tsar.
You’d imagine that years in prison would make MK rethink his political stance. Surely it would break the will of the man who dared challenge Putin. You would think so. Therefore it was with some surprise that a reporter at the Financial Times recently scored an email interview with the former tycoon.
Wouldn’t it be wiser, whatever his plans, for MK to sit quietly and count the days until freedom? Not for Khodorkovsky. He has Russian blood in his veins. When he stood in court in a cage he made it look like he owned it, like he was the magician David Blaine about to perform a disappearing act. The man has nerve.
Russians, it seems, are made of sterner stuff. In the FT interview MK drew attention to a number of controversial “truths” regarding the Tsar’s management of Russia and the future of politics in a country where power replaced politics sometime around 2000. It’s worth looking closely at some of MK’s remarks. Remember, this is a man flirting with the abyss. We know how strong and heedless Putin is. He doesn’t need to be liked. He could lock MK up for another five or ten years. Nonetheless, MK was as forthright as could be considering his circumstances.
I would have stayed silent. Then again, this is a clash of the titans. It can be argued that MK is accruing more and more political equity the longer he stays locked up, as did Nelson Mandela. Yet this he wins at great sacrifice”of his family, time, and liberty at the prime of his life. The Russkis are tough walnuts. Most admirable is MK’s sanity in a situation so perverse, many would have buckled under the injustices he’s endured.
A note of defeatism is detectable in MK’s remarks. Has his spirit been (partially) broken? Perhaps he’s dissimulating and plans a political coup once he’s on the outside? Having lost his best friend to illness while in prison on the same charges, MK’s shattering fall from grace has left him with little left to lose. And this was a man who once had everything.
That’s the Russian spirit. It makes the Greenpeace campers look like lightweights.
The Moscow Times reported a few days ago that European justices have found the Russian court “violated the defendants’ lawyer-client confidentiality, rejected appropriate evidence, harassed the defense lawyers, arbitrarily made Khodorkovsky pay over 17 billion rubles ($525 million) in back taxes for his company after he had been convicted and violated his family rights by sentencing him to serve his prison term in a far-off colony.”
Russia has announced that it will respect the ruling from the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR). It’s a happy surprise that Moscow accepted the ECHR’s ruling.
That’s Tsar Vladimir for you. Just when you’ve given up all hope, he acquiesces. And if Russia’s acceptance here equals a tacit admission of misrule (by Putin, et al.), so what? Job done.
Anyhow, the European court? Europe?”a divided continent including England, “a small country no one listens to.”
It’s no match for the world’s most powerful self-made”if not democratically elected”man.
