Robert Amsterdam posts an interview with one of the men who has shared a cell with Mikhail Khodorkovsky. Here’s a snippet from the author’s introduction:
They wouldn’t put just anybody in the same cell as THIS jailbird. No, they would place a “brood hen” – a specially trained prisoner-informant. The “brood hen’s” job is to listen and to hear everything his cellmate lives and breathes, and then to report all of this to those who put him in the cell to sit there – just like a farmer puts a real brood hen on eggs to sit on them until they hatch.
Fascinating.
March 10th, 2007 at 12:00 am
Grigori Pasko is a true Russian patriot and hero. As such, he’s a marked man. He doesn’t get nearly enough attention in the West, so it’s delightful to see him get some. He should be in the mainstream media regularly and all those serious about Russia should view his installments on Bob’s blog as required reading!
March 10th, 2007 at 12:01 am
I.E., it’s a pity you didn’t see fit to actually mention his name.
March 10th, 2007 at 6:01 am
Nice to see that you’re back…and with a new look! Keep it up! -raffi
March 10th, 2007 at 8:46 am
When will we be able to read an interview with Robert Amsterdam’s cellmate ? Well, there might be a chance when Amsterdam violates Russian visa law again. Next time we shouldn’t compliment him out of Moscow but in to Chita
March 11th, 2007 at 6:02 am
I’ve been following the Yukos Saga upto Mikhail Khodorkovsky’s arrest but I never really got good coverage on why he’s being prosecuted. Is it because he’s a threat to the Kremlin or has Putin decided to lynch the oligarchs for some reason?
March 11th, 2007 at 8:42 am
Benj, Khodorkovsky is prosecuted for being a criminal, for tax evasion, money laundry and several other crimes. I also hope he will be held responsible for the killings YUKOS can be directly linked to.
March 11th, 2007 at 11:56 am
BENJ: Khodorkhovsky was arrested weeks after he let it be publicly known that he was interested in challenging Putin for the presidency. He’s already been arrested, convicted and sent to Siberia for a long prison term, and now he’s been re-arrested and is going to be put on trial for the exact same acts but under a different charge, the same thing as being tried twice for the same crime. His lawyers have been repeatedly harassed, he’s been assaulted in prison, and his trials were full of basic violations of the law (as documented in an elaborate report published by his lawyer Robert Amsterdam, which you can read here:
http://www.robertamsterdam.com/2007/02/white_paper_abuse_of_state_aut.htm
His wife and children are also being harassed, his lawyer at Yukos (a woman with children) has been prosecuted and imprisoned just for being his lawyer, and a huge number of highly respected international human rights organizations and media outlets have condemened the Kremlin for engaging in political prosecution.
Most importantly, even the most maniacal Russian nationalist admits that there are tens of thousands of other businessmen who are “guilty” of the crimes Khodorkovsky was charged with, including many who hold high positions in the Kremlin power structure, but they go unprosecuted.
Draw your own conclusions.