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"Sovest" Group Campaign for Granting Political Prisoner Status to Mikhail Khodorkovsky

You consider Mikhail Khodorkovsky a political prisoner?
Write to the organisation "Amnesty International" !


Campagne d'information du groupe SOVEST


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Wednesday, October 20, 2004

Russian mogul's lawyer slams Putin policy

By BARRY SCHWEID
AP DIPLOMATIC WRITER

WASHINGTON -- A defense lawyer for jailed oil tycoon Mikhail Khodorkovsky said Tuesday anti-democratic trends were emerging in Russia under President Vladimir Putin with the aim of quieting political opponents.

"He was a spy, and he remains a member of the intelligence community," Yuri Schmidt said in an interview amid meetings at the State Department, members of Congress and think tank analysts.

With a smile, Schmidt questioned President Bush's conclusion, after a meeting with Putin in 2001, that "I was able to get a sense of his soul, a man deeply committed to his country and the best interests of his country."

"I know Putin well personally," Schmidt said. "He knows how to speak well, and he knows very well how to hide his true intentions."

Khodorkovsky was arrested at gunpoint a year ago and remains in jail while the state prepares to auction the crucial production unit of Yukos, the huge oil company Khodorkovsky bought when the Soviet Union disintegrated. Schmidt insisted the case against him was purely political.

"What we are up against is the full and entire machinery of the government," said the one-time Soviet dissident human rights activist.

And, Schmidt said, the case is part of a larger process by Putin to throttle political opponents.

"If they had any sense, there would be a fair trial, with an independent court, and we would not be here now," Schmidt said in an interview in the State Department lobby.

While Putin has portrayed the case as a clampdown on corruption, the campaign against Yukos and Khodorkovsky has caused foreign investors to worry about the Kremlin's commitment to a free market and about oil production by a major exporter.

State Department spokesman Richard Boucher said the case was "a matter of continuing interest and concern for the United States."

"We have had concerns about the possible sale of Yukos," he said. And, Boucher said, "we have had concerns all along" about the prosecution of its founder.

(From Seattle Post Intelligencer, 19.10.2004)

Free Khodorkovsky! Free Russia!