Alexei Navalny — the prominent opposition leader and protest organizer who is also a lawyer by trade — has been hired to defend an ex-Yukos manager in court. Alexei Navalny — the prominent opposition leader and protest organizer who is also a lawyer by trade — has been hired to defend an ex-Yukos manager in court, Gazeta.ru reported Thursday. Navalny, who specializes...

Russia's most famous prisoner, former Yukos owner Mikhail Khodorkovsky is urging the opposition to continue with its "escalation of nonviolent protest," and not to give up until its demands are filled. Russia’s most famous prisoner, former...

First Deputy Prime Minister Igor Shuvalov said Thursday that he thinks former Yukos owner Mikhail Khodorkovsky should be pardoned. First Deputy Prime Minister Igor Shuvalov said Thursday that he thinks former Yukos owner Mikhail Khodorkovsky should be pardoned, Vedomosti reported. Shuvalov is the latest highly ranked government...

... Arabia, when it is in its best interests. But imagine if opposition leader Alexei Navalny, for example, ever came to power and Putin becomes just an ordinary citizen. Putin understands that one of the first things Navalny would do after freeing former Yukos CEO Mikhail Khodorkovsky from prison would be to appoint an independent tribunal to investigate allegations of corruption and abuse of power among Putin and his ruling elite. The Yukos affair alone would probably be enough to put those who conspired...

... pricing policies and alleged tax avoidance. The incident, in which Putin promised to send the unwell Zyuzin “a doctor and a prosecutor,” caused Mechel shares to crash 40 percent on fears the company could suffer a similar fate to oil major Yukos. Yukos was broken up and its oligarch owner Mikhail Khodorkovsky jailed after falling foul of Putin in 2003, a case critics say was politically motivated. But two years later Putin said he regretted making comments that were so detrimental to Mechel’s...

... visa-free regime for OSCE citizens, the privatization of state-owned companies and a 30 percent cut in the number of state employees by 2014. Prokhorov also promises to free all economic "criminals" from prison, a nod to billionaire and former Yukos CEO Mikhail Khodorkovsky and his business partner Platon Lebedev, who are considered political prisoners by opposition-minded voters. Prokhorov and Yabloko founder Grigory Yavlinsky are the only presidential candidates to fully embrace the December...

... philanthropy. But clearly what they spend is not enough to sway public opinion toward legitimization of their wealth in a country where the Gini coefficient hovers around 42. At the very least, the oligarchs — with the obvious exception of former Yukos owners — could monetize the gains that they made in the most questionable privatization deals, such as loans-for-shares, and spend them on social projects and sustainable development. Russia had 101 billionaires that collectively owned $432...

... first demand is that the authorities immediately release all political prisoners and those who were deliberately incarcerated on trumped-up charges. The web site Politzeky.ru lists 137 of Russia's most prominent political prisoners, including former Yukos CEO Mikhail Khodorkovsky and his former business partner Platon Lebedev. In addition, there are also tens of thousands of innocent businesspeople who were convicted on fabricated charges after their businesses were seized by corrupt government officials...

... on the basis of popularity, but on the state’s direction. Imagine a world with only one movie studio deciding which stars to promote.  Now, the kids are not afraid, and they pick their own heroes. Yes, they have seen oil baron and former Yukos CEO Mikhail Khodorkovsky imprisoned on questionable charges and inconvenient opposition journalists beaten or killed. But they have also seen their friends posting on Facebook with impunity and can see their own comments there. They cannot imagine...

... of anything, otherwise I couldn't do the work of a president." In less dramatic form, Medvedev told students that he was not leaving politics and wouldn't rule out running for president again in the future. Asked about the fate of jailed former Yukos CEO Mikhail Khodorkovsky, whom many opposition-minded Russians consider a political prisoner, Medvedev said, "His fate is a sad one. I sympathize with him." He added that the president could only pardon a prisoner who had appealed to him...

... the past 12 years. Sparks would definitely fly if Nemtsov or Ryzhkov were given the chance to grill Putin about, for example, the botched Beslan and Dubrovka rescue missions that resulted in more than 460 civilian deaths; Baikal Finance Group and the Yukos affair; how Gennady Timchenko, the Rotenberg brothers and dozens of other Putin friends and colleagues got so wealthy so quickly; or even allegations that Putin plagiarized part of his doctoral dissertation, a topic that would be fair game in a...

... barred from politics as Putin tightened control after becoming president in 2000. Khodorkovsky, who broke an unwritten compact with the Kremlin by funding opposition parties, was jailed in 2003 and is due to remain behind bars until late 2016, his Yukos oil empire long ago carved up and sold off into state hands. Prokhorov's riches are rooted in Norilsk Nickel, now the world's largest nickel miner, which he and Vladimir Potanin bought at a knockdown price in the 1990s. Already a billionaire, he...