From Robert Amsterdam’s latest in the Huffington Post:

But it is clear to those of us who have watched and listened to
Khodorkovsky over these years that his beliefs, spirit and convictions
have only deepened. When he first became a political prisoner, he was
recognized as a symbol of Russia being on the wrong track: the
disappearance of rule of law, corporate raiding and state theft,
authoritarian drift, and the Kremlin’s first taste of using stolen
assets as an energy weapon. Today, after six long years of injustice,
he is emerging as an important political voice and a sign of Russian
moral conscience.

These statements have been building over past months, most recently highlighted by an article he penned in Vedomosti,
challenging President Dmitry Medvedev’s proclamations of reform and
liberalism made some weeks earlier. Within the Putin-Medvedev
tandemocracy, Khodorkovsky writes that the president is merely “playing
the classic role of the ‘good cop’ in a theatrical performance;” and
that when the president speaks about the need for a genuine civil
society and a citizen-driven reform process without a rejection of the
current authoritarian system, it is only a rhetorical exercise.

A true modernization process in Russia cannot be another top down
directive from the inefficient vertical of power, Khodorkovsky writes,
but rather a movement pushed by the voices of millions. As Medvedev had
pledged to incorporate responses of citizens to his article in his
state of the union speech, he told the media recently that he had read Khodorkovsky’s article.

Though his views are political, his ambitions are moral, not personal. In a Q&A published on Gazeta.ru, Khodorkovsky writes
that he “hopes against hope” that he will soon be released and reunited
with his family, to spend time with his children before they have
already grown into young adults. He writes that he is “far from being a
hero….Today, I am just a prisoner. Nothing more, nothing less.”
However he entertains no illusions about the political nature of the
process being carried out against him: “If it’s done according to the
law, it should be soon. But it will be when they stop being afraid,
that is, never. (…) Russia will always exist and a change of power is
inevitable.”

In the meantime, the theater of the absurd continues on a daily
basis at the Khamovnichesky District Court in Moscow, where
Khodorkovsky is undergoing a second show trial in which he is accused
of somehow having been able to embezzle the entire oil production of
Yukos company – charges that are not only implausible and groundless,
but also contradictory of the charges of the first trial. This
theatrical performance may as well carry the title “Waiting for Putin,”
as the desultory prosecutors waste away the days, as the judge awaits
the telephone-ordered verdict from above.

As the days slip away into the maw of this judicial travesty, we’ll
continue counting the missed birthdays, fatherless holidays, school
graduations, anniversary dinners, weekends at home, and severed
friendships. These deprivations are investing Khodorkovsky’s words and
perspectives with more and more meaning, and the people of Russia are
waking up to it. Isn’t it time that the international community begin
to do the same?

Last 5 posts by Robert Amsterdam

• Mikhail Khodorkovsky on the Front Page of French Newspaper Le Monde - November 26th, 2009
• Russia Admits Partial Guilt in Prison Death - November 26th, 2009
• Russia Accused of Torture in Magnitsky Death - November 26th, 2009
• Energy Blast - Nov 26, 2009 - November 26th, 2009
• Today in Russian Business - Nov 26, 2009 - November 26th, 2009