WASHINGTON (Reuters) – The United States suggested yesterday that an extended prison term for Russian former tycoon Mikhail Khodorkovsky was an abuse of justice, and a senior US official said it may impede Russia’s entry to the World Trade Organization.
Despite the harsh US words, analysts said the treatment of Khodorkovsky and his co-defendant, Platon Lebedev, was unlikely to undercut a White House effort to work with the Kremlin where it can on strategic and security issues.
A Russian judge ordered Khodorkovsky jailed until 2017 after being convicted of theft and money-laundering. The case was seen in the West as a test of the rule of law in Russia and by many analysts as a political vendetta against an adversary of Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin.
Once Russia’s richest man and head of Yukos, a now defunct major oil company, Khodorkovsky is in the final year of an eight-year sentence imposed after a politically charged fraud and tax evasion trial during Putin’s 2000-2008 presidency.
In the latest trial, prosecutors said he and Lebedev stole nearly $30 billion in oil from Yukos subsidiaries through price mechanisms and laundered some of this. Khodorkovsky’s lawyers called the charges an absurd pretext to keep him in jail.
US officials said the case raised serious questions about Russia’s commitment to the rule of law.
“We remain concerned by the allegations of serious due process violations, and what appears to be an abusive use of the legal system for improper ends, particularly now that Khodorkovsky and Lebedev have been sentenced to the maximum penalty,” said State Department spokesman Mark Toner.
When Khodorkovsky and Lebedev were convicted on Monday, US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said their second trial raised serious questions about the apparent selective application of the law.
“Simply put, the Russian government cannot nurture a modern economy without also developing an independent judiciary that serves as an instrument for furthering economic growth, ensuring equal treatment under the law, and advancing justice in a predictable and fair way,” Toner added.
A senior official of President Barack Obama’s administration suggested the new sentence will make it harder for Russia to join the WTO.
“It is not going to help their cause, it is only going to complicate their cause,” the official, who spoke on condition of anonymity, told Reuters.
“The WTO is a rules-based, rule of law organization. Most countries around the world do not look at this verdict as a demonstration of the deepening of the rule of law in Russia. It will definitely have an effect on Russia’s reputation.”
However, US officials say helping Russia join the WTO will remain a priority for the Obama administration next year. Obama has strongly backed Russia’s campaign for WTO membership, which would boost foreign investment in that country.