Former Yukos CEO Mikhail Khodorkovsky warned in a commentary published Wednesday that Russia's judicial system deals in "authorized violence" that threatens the government's stability.
Khodorkovsky, serving an eight-year sentence after being convicted in 2005 of fraud and tax evasion, wrote in Nezavisimaya Gazeta that the current judicial system is an "assembly line in a huge factory" that tilts thousands of active citizens against the government.
He described in detail the work of the "assembly line, " which he said frames innocent businessmen on orders of those in power.
"In fact, the system is an enterprise whose business is authorized violence," Khodorkovsky said in the commentary.
President Dmitry Medvedev has named an independent judiciary and a crackdown on corruption as hallmarks of his presidency.
Khodorkovsky's supporters say his arrest in 2003 was motivated by political and business interests. Khodorkovsky faces 22 more years in prison if convicted in a second trial that started in March 2009.
Khodorkovsky stressed in his article that the current system could not go on forever in its current state and, if left unreformed, "its destruction will occur in the traditional way for Russia — from below and with bloodshed."
"Three percent of the population, if this is our most active part, is a critical mass, necessary and efficient for radical changes," he said.
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