Putin, Khodorkovsky and the trial that rocked Russia

The trial of Russia’s richest businessman, Mikhail Khordokovsky this year sent renewed fear through Russian society with claims that the case was politically motivated.

On a rainy day in May, hundreds of demonstrators chanted “freedom, freedom” outside Moscow’s Meshchanski court. Inside, oil tycoon Mikhail Khodorkovsky was on trial accused of fraud and tax evasion. Eventually a verdict was reached, but the judge took several days to read out the sentence, adding to the length of the trial which had already dragged on for months.

Lawyer Robert Amsterdam thought the slow delivery of the final outcome was a deliberate ploy. "They want to make journalists lose interest”, he said at the time:
"As long as the media is here, they’ll try to draw out the sentence. The process is political. When the Kremlin decides the time is ripe, judgment will be passed.''

Political ambitions
Khodorkovsky was arrested in October 2003. At 40 years old he’d already accomplished a lot. He was the wealthiest person in Russia, the owner of the modern and successful Yukos oil company, and still very ambitious. He dreamt of merging Yukos and the oil firm Sibneft to make one of the world’s energy giants. Khodorkovsky was also interested in politics. He supported various opposition parties and wasn’t shy about his own political ambitions.

When the public prosecutor opened a case against Khordokovsky, the businessman understood that it was a serious matter. "I’m available”, Khodorkovsky said at a press conference just a few days before his arrest. "I’m not planning on becoming a political emigrant. I’m leaving on a business trip, but I’ll be back on Saturday. If the prosecutor has taken a decision by then, I’ll be at his disposal.''

Despite his obvious willingness to cooperate, Khodorkovsky was dramatically arrested and imprisoned by armed, masked men. At about the same time, the tax office bombarded Yukos with a series of demands running into billions of dollars. The successful company was forced to sell its main subsidiary, which ended up as part of the state-owned Rosneft oil firm. That meant that part of Yukos had effectively been renationalised.

Clashes
Despite the long-running trial, there was no let-up in the demonstrations outside court with Khordokovsky’s supporters often clashing with police. Finally on 31 May, the sentence was complete, nine years in a Siberian prison camp for Khordorkovsky and his business partner, Platon Lebedev.

While protests about the convictions carried on, there were also those who supported the legal action. Researcher Andrei Kortunov thinks many poorer Russians agree with the sentence. "They only think it’s a pity that Khodorkovsky is the only wealthy businessman to have been locked up,'' he says, "they’d like to see all the other rich people behind bars and stripped of their wealth. Many people hold this view, especially among the poorer population groups who lost more than they gained during the reform years.''

Unpredictable
For Russia’s growing middle class, however, Khodorkovsky’s case is proof that President Vladimir Putin can change the rules as he wishes. "Many young people are now thinking of pursuing a career abroad. Khodorkovsky is an important figure for them, the representative of a new generation, a modern manager, someone they want to be like,'' says Kortunov.

And Kortunov’s colleague, Mark Urnov, a former adviser of Boris Yeltsin, sees the Khodorkovsky case as a turning point. He thinks Putin made a mistake which has resulted in economic stagnation and a return of fear in society. "I’m convinced Russia would have been a model of economic development if the Yukos scandal hadn’t taken place and Putin had stuck to the political course he set before 2003,'' says Urnov:
"History would have judged Putin as a truly great president, but the Yukos affair has ruined that possibility for good.''

Radio Nederland, 12.30.2005