Khodorkovsky’s "Win" Could Cost Him

It can’t be called good news, but it’s certainly noteworthy. The Russian court has rejected the sexual harassment charge against imprisoned oil magnate Mikhail Khodorkovsky. The dubious case was filed by Khodorkovsky’s former cellmate, Alexander Kuchma — the same Alexander Kuchma who slashed Khodorkovsky’s face with a knife in 2006. But another of Khodorkovsky’s ex-prisonmates, Denis Yurinsky, rushed to his defense, stating publicly that the allegations were a smear ghostwritten by the authorities. Is this small victory a sign of hope for Khodorkovsky? Not likely.

He is, after all, facing yet another trial in Moscow. Preliminary hearings in the new case, which could add more than a decade to Khodorkovsky’s sentence, start on March 3, and it may very well be that the dismissal of the “gay allegation” is actually a bad omen; rejection of this comparatively minor — and likely prefabricated — case may be the Kremlin waving its “fairness flag.” Now when the court speedily convicts Khodorkovsky of embezzlement and all the other charges, it will have a recent acquittal to shove in the face of critics.

We’ll try to wait for the official verdict before declaring this thing a show trial double-header, but remember, you heard it here first.

Russian Court Rejects Khodorkovsky Sex Assault Suit [AFP]

Photo courtesy of Kommersant.ru

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James Kimer

February 26, 6:12 AM

"You heard it here first"? As the editor over at robertamsterdam.com, I am frankly stunned and embarrassed! :)

February 26, 9:46 AM

@James: Overzealous underlings! :)

Jerry Christenson

February 27, 9:03 AM

Russian's Flying Close to Canadian Airspace.

What the hell do the think they are doing, it costs them 10's of thousands of dollars to fly their "Bear" bombers over the arctic tundra towards Canadian airspace so that we can spend 10's of thousands of dollars to fly up and intercept them. How much mony do they have to throw away? Canada has clearly established control of the North West passage and the vast resouces of arctic regions of North America. Russian needs to focus on keeping its own infastructure from crumbling under the weight its own pollitical inepness.

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