I'd go further. Khodorkovskyetal are murderers and thieves, but as long as they at least pretended to be nash they were permitted post-98 to hold on to the hydrocarbon rents for fear of what the Mafia/oligarchs could do if challenged - terrorism (including nuclear) on a scale that would make NordEst look like a playground scratch. As Khodorkovskyetal prepared to sell the rights to future rents cheap to ExxonMobil-BP-Etc in return for a giant slice of cash in LondonNewYork right now, from the point of view of anyone not sold to the US/Mafia something had to be done.
The problem is how to do it safely. Already the monster Chubais is threatening that if the prosecution of Khodorkovsky continues "there will be a conflict of such an extent that it will bring in the entire society, and it could turn out to be uncontrollable..." - which I understand to mean nuclear terrorism.
Thanks Peter for the (disgusting) info that the KPRF is protesting the move against Khodorkovsky. So is anyone supporting the move? How about the Glazyev Rodina front? He at least has been focused on the recapture of the hydrocarbon rents for the country, and their moneyman Lebedev of the National Reserve Bank (it's a private bank despite the name) has been fighting Chubais within UES, and has been the key figure in trying to bring offshore money _back_. A one person national bourgeoisie :-)
Whatever may be the outcome of this Yukos business I have already had more fun just today reading the hysterical squealing from the freemarket swine than any day since the Cubs were up 3-1 in the playoffs.
Chris - if you're in Vilna - there used to be a bar on Didzioji gatve a few doors from the Astorija that I remember as totally amazing. And your friend Sasha expresses surely what any decent person anywhere has to want to see happen. The expropriators have to be expropriated, but in this day and age surely they should be shown some clemency when it comes to the length of their sentences.
john mage