Russia: Why Kremlin still pursues banished oil tycoon Khodorkovsky
In Russia, where public support for Kremlin attacks on oil tycoon Khodorkovsky is waning, there are two starkly different narratives. But both sides agree he was singled out for punishment.
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Several of Khodorkovsky aides and even lawyers working for Yukos have also been targeted in what critics allege is an expanding state crackdown.
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“Today it’s obvious that the Yukos affair is part of the redistribution of property from one oligarchic group to another,” and the trials are part of that process, says Stanislav Belkovsky, director of the independent National Strategy Institute in Moscow. “If Putin keeps returning to this subject, it’s because he feels less and less sure of himself.”
Attorneys working for Khodorkovsky agree that their client has been targeted for political and economic reasons, but deny he’s guilty of the multiple criminal charges being flung at him.
“Basically, they wanted to send a political message by prosecuting Khodorkovsky, to eliminate contrary politics and seize his oil company,” says Sanford Saunders, a US-based senior member of Khodorkovsky’s defense team. “These cases have nothing to do with any criminal conduct on Khodorkovsky’s part. They’re going through the motions [of a trial] so that they can satisfy some predetermined verdict.”
Public support waning for Kremlin's treatment of Khodorkovsky
Though Khodorkovsky’s oil empire Yukos was dismantled and swallowed up by state oil firms, and the former tycoon has been out of public sight except for his Moscow court appearances, opinion polls show that declining numbers of Russians support the Kremlin’s repeated legal assaults on him.
“In 2003, when Khodorkovsky was first arrested, 26 percent of Russians believed it was part of Putin’s program to struggle against corrupt oligarchs and make businessmen pay taxes, and now just 12 percent believe that,” says Boris Dubin, head of sociological surveys for the independent Levada Center in Moscow.
Some experts say that if Putin’s hand-picked Kremlin successor, Dmitry Medvedev, ever follows through on promises to fight corruption and make Russia’s business environment more law-based, Khodorkovsky’s long ordeal might finally come to an end.
“Public opinion is swinging more and more toward Khodorkovsky, and it’s clear that this case will influence Russian political life as long as it goes on,” says Lev Ponomaryov, a leading Russian human rights activist.
“Khodorkovsky’s fate can only be changed by some revolutionary developments at the summit of power, but I wouldn’t rule that out,” he says.
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