18 June 2004 00:40
International Herald Tribune Editorial, June 15
"The Russian government's fraud and tax evasion case against two billionaires, Mikhail Khodorkovsky and
Platon Lebedev, [began on] Wednesday in a Moscow court. The trial has already attracted enormous attention; the
extraordinary fortunes of the two defendants, and the parallel struggle for survival of the oil company that made them
rich, Yukos, has turned this case into a microcosm of the struggles that are shaping the new Russia . . . In effect, it
is Russia and the rule of law that [are] on trial . . .
"In the end, the critical question is not whether the court finds the two men guilty or not, but whether it
succeeds in demonstrating that it has delivered justice . . . Given Russia's past, few things could be more
corrosive to democracy than a show trial."
[The Guardian] |
RUSSIA IN FACTS
