From Siberian prison to Moscow courtroom

Mikhail Khodorkovsky's journey through the Russian justice system.

Miriam ElderMarch 4, 2009 07:19Updated May 30, 2010 11:46

Jailed former Russian oil tycoon Mikhail Khodorkovsky stands in the defendant's cage during a court hearing in Chita Aug. 21, 2008. (Tatyana Makeyeva/Reuters)

MOSCOW — He has become the ultimate symbol of the Kremlin’s sweeping control over politics and business in Russia.

On Tuesday, Mikhail Khodorkovsky, the former head of the Yukos oil company and once Russia’s richest man, walked into a Moscow courtroom to hear charges that stand to keep him in prison for another 20 years.

Since his arrest in October 2003, Khodorkovsky has spent the bulk of his time at a labor camp in Chita, a city 3,100 miles east of Moscow.

His appearance on Tuesday at the Khamovnichesky Court, just down the street from the gleaming White House that holds Putin’s government, was his first in Moscow since being exiled east after being handed a guilty verdict in 2005.

Khodorkovsky looked, understandably, older and greyer, and plumper, too. His face held a wide smile as he entered the courtroom, led to a glass cage by armed guards who took off his handcuffs before letting him inside.

There he vigorously shook the hand of Platon Lebedev, his former business partner and co-defendant, whose fate has mirrored Khodorkovsky’s since the Yukos ordeal began.

(Print journalists were not allowed into the pre-trial hearing — which will decide whether the trial itself will be open to the public, and other procedural issues — but I managed to corner a cameraman who had taken a small video camera inside.)

Among opposition-minded people in Russia, interest in the case is high. One old woman roamed the halls of the shabby courthouse along with more than 100 journalists, shouting at police whenever she had the chance.

“I want to see my love!” she shouted. “I love smart people! Khodorkovsky is the smartest. Instead, we have idiots in power.”

Special operations troops clad in bullet-proof vests guarded the entrance to the courtroom, as well as the streets outside. They reportedly detained ten people who had gathered near the building shouting “Freedom to political prisoners! Freedom to Mikhail Khodorkovsky!"

Khodorkovsky himself reportedly shouted, “It’s a disgrace!” as he entered the courthouse.