The Rocky Mountain Collegian

Issue date: 3/2/09 Section: News

Media Credit: Teodor Kustov - AP In this June 16, 2004 file photo, former Yukos oil company CEO Mikhail Khodorkovsky is seen behind bars at a courtroom, at the start of a trial in Moscow. From a tiny cell in one of Moscow's most notorious prisons, Mikhail Khodorkovsky, the man who was once his country's wealthiest tycoon awaits a trial that for many will be a critical test of Russian justice, and President Dmitry Medvedev's commitment to the rule of law. Beginning Tuesday, Khodorkovsky will once again peer out from a courtroom cage and stand trial for alleged financial crimes related to the oil company that he turned into Russia's largest.

MOSCOW - From a tiny cell in one of Moscow's most notorious prisons, the man who was once his country's wealthiest tycoon awaits a trial that for many will be a critical test of Russian justice - and President Dmitry Medvedev's commitment to the rule of law.

Beginning Tuesday, former billionaire oil baron Mikhail Khodorkovsky will once again peer out from a courtroom cage and stand trial for alleged financial crimes related to the oil company that he turned into Russia's largest.

When Khodorkovsky was first jailed nearly six years ago, many Russians saw the downfall of the 45-year-old former Communist Youth activist as a victory over the so-called oligarchs who plundered their country's prized industrial assets in the years after the 1991 Soviet collapse.

But others believe Khodorkovsky's real crime was to challenge the Kremlin and then-President Vladimir Putin.

Now comes a new trial, under a new president. It stands to be a crucible for Medvedev's commitment to uprooting what he famously called Russia's "legal nihilism" and infusing greater credibility into a justice system often criticized as a political cudgel.

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