Earlier today we were emailed regarding a small demonstration to be held tomorrow morning in front of the Drake Hotel in Chicago, IL in support of Mikhail Khodorkovsky, coinciding with the Russian National Exhibition (a business conference looking to drum up foreign investment, held from Nov. 18-Nov. 21 at McCormick Place).  It should be a pretty big event, featuring some serious players in the U.S.-Russia business community.If you or any interested friends are in the Chicago area or perhaps attending the conference, stop by and say hello.  Pass along this Facebook link to spread the word. 

TODAY: Medvedev's state of the nation address warns opposition against using democracy to rock the boat; talks up modernization. Media unconvinced President can match word with deed. Topol-M problem for START replacement talks;  Litvinenko suspect Lugovoi willing to speak to London prosecutors?; is Russia really cracking down on nationalists; Putin world's third most powerful according to ForbesIn President Medvedev's second state-of-the-nation address, highlights of which can be found here, he warned opposition politicians not to use democracy as a way to 'destabilize the state and split society'. The fact that the speech emphasized long-term goals, related to cutting time zones, technology and industrial modernization, heralds a call for re-election argues one analyst, quoted in the Moscow ...

Vladimir Putin has been ranked number 3 in the Forbes list of the most powerful people in the world, President Medvedev comes in 43rd, after Deputy Prime Minister, siloviki chieftain and Rosneft chairman Igor Sechin at number 42. (See the editor's choice for Russia's top seven.) Forbes has got a special feature on the politician the Russian press apparently call 'the scariest person on earth'. There is little solid information about the man. Like many of Putin's cronies, Sechin is a St. Petersburg native. In the 1990s he worked in city government. Before that, it's widely believed he was a spy; Moscow sources confirm that he was a member of the GRU, the KGB's foreign-intelligence arm. ...

Bob has an opinion article in today's edition of the Guardian stressing the importance of linking human rights with foreign relations during David Miliband's visit to Russia this week, and elsewhere in the same paper, Mikhail Khodorkovsky's mother has issued her own appeal to the foreign secretary.

At least one report confirms that Khodorkovsky's case will indeed be discussed.

Miliband has started on this path already, apparently. He met with human rights activists today where, according to Radio Free Europe/Radio Libery, he "expressed his concern over the killings of activists of nongovernmental organizations in Russia and the pressure that is being imposed on civil society."

Miliband also pressed Russia to

...

The race for Ukraine's Presidency is hotting up.  With the incumbent serial Kremlin-offender Viktor Yushchenko flagging with ratings of just 3%, it seems that battle has truly commenced between Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko and opposition leader Viktor Yanukovych.  Russia-Ukraine relations have considerably suffered under Yushchenko's leadership -  will Tymoshenko, the other, (lest it be forgot) architect of the Orange Revolution, be West or East-leaning?  RFE/RL quotes her as suggesting that whilst involvement with Europe will be prioritized, warmer Russia relations may be on the cards:I'm sure that our relations with the Russian Federation can be equal and respectable, open and honest, without ambiguities.Or is she planning an altogether different kind of homage to Russia?  Yevgeny ...

As many of you know, today is the sixth anniversary of the arrest of Mikhail Khodorkovsky.  On Oct. 25, 2003, a team of spetsnaz armed to the teeth raided an airplane on a snowy Novosibirsk runway, behaving as though they were taking down the world's most dangerous terrorist, instead of a mild-mannered business executive on his way to a speech at a University.  It was Act 1 of a long-running theatrical drama, screen written with the goal of creating a distraction from the openly political persecution of man who frightened an authoritarian state.  That ruthless script continues playing out today in a stuffy Moscow courtroom, awaiting its draconian conclusion.What can you do?  If you are on Twitter, you can follow a stream of updates both on the case and all news of related human rights and rule of law issues ...

The following is a translation of an article about the second trial of Mikhail Khodorkovsky published in the French weekly magazine, Le Nouvel Observateur.

The Convict who Frightens the Kremlin From our special correspondent in Moscow

Mikhail Khodorkovsky, former head of oil company Yukos, is serving eight years in prison in Siberia. He is again judged in a trial in which the arbitrary rivals absurdity. The Russian power in the hands of Putin, does not want to see out of prison the person who was formerly the richest man in the country...

It is in this tiny and outdated courtroom No. 7 on the second floor of the Khamovnitchesky District Court of

...

Kafkaesque. The former Russian oil tycoon, who stood up to Putin, is back before his judges. Here is the story. [The following is a translation of an article published in the French publication Le Point.]

Le Point, October 15, 2009

Accused Khodorkovsky, Stand Up!

From our special envoy Marc Nexon

He stands up, opens his spiral notebook and pulls out 3 sheets of paper he has scribbled with his fine handwriting. He pats the microphone installed in his glass cage. "Can you hear me?" he asks, addressing the judge. Then he starts with a clear voice: "I know that in his eyes I embody absolute evil, but I would like to ask quietly a few questions to the witness of the prosecution..."

...

Here goes a subtitled video montage of the one of the first exhibitions of all the art produced as part of a contest of student artists visiting the second trial of Mikhail Khodorkovsky.

Well one can say a lot of things about the Russian mafia leader Vyacheslav K. Ivankov, but you wouldn't say he didn't have an impact on the country, as his funeral today brought out crowds of hundreds.  In this news clip, there are some amusing altercations between Ivankov and the media which will likely become YouTube hits, but the fact is his murder could be the catalyst for a renewed outburst of violent fighting between rival criminal groups.Back during the height of his criminal enterprise, Ivankov was arrested, tried, and sentenced to nine years in prison in the United States in 1997, where the FBI considered him one of the most powerful men in the Russian mafia.  Then, in 2004, he was extradited to Russia on murder charges, where - I am sure you guessed it - he ...