“A thief should sit in jail…”

The Economist

The conviction of Mikhail Khodorkovsky, a former Russian oil tycoon, is a sobering reminder that the Russia of Vladimir Putin is surely a throwback to the bad old days of the totalitarian state. Mr Khodorkovsky has already spent the past seven years in prison for tax evasion and money-laundering; after the new trial (a travesty of justice that has led to public criticism from Hillary Clinton and the EU) more years in prison seem inevitable—enough to keep him in custody well after Russia’s next presidential election, due in 2012.

To Mr Khodorkovsky’s supporters, all of this looks very much like a personal vendetta on the part of Mr Putin, who only a few days ago, when asked about the trial, quoted a well-known film line that “a thief should sit in jail.”

Sadly, Mr Khodorkovsky’s plight is far from the only example of corrupt and politically malleable justice in Russia—witness the death last year in pre-trial custody of Sergei Magnitsky, the employee of an American investor who had dared to accuse the Russian police of massive corruption.

What does this imply for Russia’s politics in 2011? One certainty is that the United Russia party, devoted to the political status quo, will win the parliamentary elections in December. The second certainty is that President Dmitry Medvedev will continue to be overshadowed by his prime minister (and predecessor as president), Vladimir Putin. After all, Mr Medvedev promised at his inauguration in 2008 to end “legal nihilism”—and that pledge now looks either hopelessly naïve or horribly cynical. In either case, it is Mr Putin, with his immense popular support, who calls the shots—and who will decide in 2011 whether to allow Mr Medvedev another presidential term in 2012 or simply move into the presidential office himself. займ на карту срочно без отказа займ срочно без отказов и проверок https://zp-pdl.com/get-quick-online-payday-loan-now.php https://zp-pdl.com/online-payday-loans-cash-advances.php займ на карту онлайн