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"Without a political component" - that is he way representatives
of the Ministry of Justice are going to defend the interests of Russia in the European Court.
The ministry's head has defined the stance on the Khodorkovskiy case today.
According to Aleksandr Konovalov, much in the Strasbourg trial is, mildly speaking, unclear to him.
Meanwhile, the Khodorkovskiy case trial is continuing in Moscow.
For Platon Lebedev his 2,204th day of imprisonment
and for Mikhail Khodorkovskiy his 2,089th day of imprisonment begins in the same way.
A vehicle of the Federal Service of Sentence Enforcement
brings them to the Khamovniki Courthouse in downtown Moscow,
where the most famous convicts in Russia are facing a second trial.
The fact that Mikhail Khodorkovskiy and Platon Lebedev are being tried again is known,
according to Levada Center data, to only 37 percent of the people of our country.
Although the hearing is open and anyone is free to come to see and hear it,
there are few people who do.
A supporter of Mikhail Khodorkovskiy explains it this way:
people lose interest, because when they come to the hearing,
people fail to understand what is happening in court.
They read documents about the activity of the YUKOS company, which Khodorkovskiy headed,
and it is unclear what those documents have to do with the charge.
Beginning from April 27, the prosecution has been reading what they call proofs of guilt.
Today, the prosecutors read Volume 114.
Contracts, agreements, financial reports are read at a fast pace in low and monotonous voices.
Mikhail Khodorkovskiy sits looking into papers;
Platon Lebedev rises occasionally and asks the judge to pay attention to falsifications;
the prosecutor continues reading.
Few in the courtroom understand the meaning of the words and figures read.
Therefore, it is so boring that if there were flies in the courtroom they would all die.
It is interesting only to the artists here.
A competition of courtroom drawings is on.
Human-rights organizations have called for the competition to attract society's attention
to what is happening in the courtroom.
A prosecutor - with his body rapaciously curved.
I like this scene: the defense team is behind the flowers
and somewhere there in a dark "aquarium," like in a dungeon, you see Khodorkovskiy.
They gave us 15 minutes for television-camera shooting,
after which cameramen were asked to leave the courtroom.
The artists can draw every day;
for them, apart from a chance to capture an historic trial,
this is also a chance to win the competition and be sent to New York City for a week.
Where and for how long Platon Lebedev and Mikhail Khodorkovskiy
will be sent after the trial is something that no one has ventured to predict so far.