[Congressional Record Volume 155, Number 56 (Thursday, April 2, 2009)]
[Senate]
[Page S4304]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




          DENOUNCING THE IMPRISONMENT OF MIKHAIL KHODORKOVSKY

  Mr. CARDIN. Mr. President, last October marked the fifth anniversary 
of the arrest of Mikhail Khodorkovsky, the former head of Yukos, 
Russia's largest oil company. The Council of Europe, Freedom House, and 
Amnesty International, among others, have concluded he was charged and 
imprisoned in a process that did not follow the rule of law and was 
politically influenced. This miscarriage of justice in 2003 is 
significant because it was one of the early signs that Russia was 
retreating from democratic values and the rule of law.
  Last month, Russian authorities decided to go to trial with a second 
set of charges first introduced in 2007 when Khodorkovsky was to become 
eligible for parole. Despite credible reports that he was a model 
prisoner, parole was denied on apparently flimsy and contrived 
technical grounds. Yet the Russian judiciary recently saw fit to grant 
parole to Colonel Yuri Budanov, who was serving a sentence for raping 
and murdering a Chechen girl. I would also like to note that it was 
Stanislav Markelov, a courageous attorney who was instrumental in 
putting Budanov behind bars. But Budanov is now free and Markelov was 
gunned down, along with Anastasia Baburova a journalist for Russia's 
premier independent newspaper Novaya Gazeta, in broad daylight in 
central Moscow last January. The message this sends is loud and clear 
and profoundly disturbing.
  Based on the observations of many independent international lawyers 
and organizations, there was no compelling evidence that Khodorkovsky 
or any of his associates were guilty of the crimes for which they were 
originally charged or that the legal process reflected the rule of law 
or international standards of justice. Even Russian officials have 
acknowledged that Khodorkovsky's arrest and imprisonment were 
politically motivated. As reported by the Economist, Igor Shuvalov, 
First Deputy Prime Minister of Russia, admitted that Khodorkovsky was 
in a Siberian prison camp ``for political reasons.'' He added that 
``Once you behead someone, you give a good example (to other Russian 
tycoons) of how to behave.'' In other words, freedom for Russia's 
businessmen is determined by the Kremlin's political expediency. As 
reported by The Washington Post and the Boston Globe, Shuvalov has 
called the trial and continued imprisonment of Khodorkovsky a 
``showflogging'' intended to serve as an example to others on the 
political consequences of challenging the Kremlin's economic ambitions.
  The current charges against Khodorkovsky amount to legal hooliganism 
and highlight the petty meanness of the senior government officials 
behind this travesty of justice.The charges and verdicts have been 
inexplicable to Russian and Western lawyers, leading international 
organizations, courts, and human rights groups to condemn the trial as 
politically inspired. The second set of charges against Khodorkovsky 
should be dropped and the new trial should be abandoned.
  I strongly support President Obama's call to reset the U.S.-Russian 
relationship and welcome the statement that emerged from his meeting in 
London with Russian President Medvedev. We have many common interests 
with Russia and must seek to improve the atmosophere and substance of 
our ties with Moscow. But the Helsinki process is predicated on the 
idea that domestic politics and inter-state relations are linked. I 
hope that President Medvedev, a trained jurist from whom many hope to 
see evidence of a reformist approach, will make that connection. The 
case of Mikhail Khodorsky is a good place to start.

                          ____________________