Putin's Push To Stardom

"With negative publicity pouring all over him, Putin dramatically changed the news cycle."
"It only reinforces the way that Russia is managed as a political monopoly of one man. The most important decisions are only his to take, and he takes them in secrecy and keeps everyone in the dark."
Masha Lipman, analyst Carnegie Moscow Center

"Let's not forget that Putin has made liberal gestures before, but they haven't been systematic."
"Putin freed Khodorkovsky because apparently he doesn't see any political danger from him."
Boris Makarenko, deputy director, Center for Political Technologies, Moscow

khodorkovsky.ru    Mikhail Khodorkovsky greets German politician Hans Dietrich Genscher in Berlin

"He cited humanitarian circumstances, his mother is ill. I believe that such a decision can be taken and soon a decree will be signed pardoning him."
"He's already spent more than ten years in prison, that's a serious punishment."
Russian President Vladimir Putin

NYTimes

The Oligarchs attained their wealth, their prestige and their power through acquiring state-owned enterprises at fire-sale giveaway prices after the dissolution of the Soviet Union. They held the inside track on the acquisitions, and it made them immensely wealthy. When states undertake privatization of state enterprises it is usually done to save money while ensuring that the services associated with those enterprises continue to serve the interests of the country.

In this episode of Russia's history, the break-up of the USSR left Russia reeling in a state of poverty, with hopes high that as it embraced capitalism it would wrench itself into a state of economic plenty and the rising tide that lifts all ships would result in higher and better employment opportunities for Russian citizens. In the meantime, inefficient, ineffective state enterprises were to be dissolved.

And the resulting oligarchs while becoming owners of great wealth were assured the transactions leading to their great wealth were never subjected to state interference and the inconvenience of a government enquiry. In exchange they were to be discreet and uninvolved in politics lest they did become a nuisance in which case the price would be steep.

It certainly turned out that way for Russia's most wealthy oligarch who found fault with President Putin's style of government, so much so that he parted with some of his wealth to fund the activities of government opponents. While leaving up in the air expectations that he would himself counter Mr. Putin in future elections for government control. Mr. Khodorkovsky was under the illusion that there would be slight repercussions.

That illusion cost him ten years of his life. He was due for release in August of 2014, but precedence taught him that he could just as easily face another charge that would keep him securely incarcerated. Originally charged with tax evasion and landed with a stupendous tax bill that all but wiped out his billions, he lost his company Yukos and gained a reputation as a victim of Mr. Putin's vindictive ire.

He could have made things easier for himself by asking for clemency but declined to do so, knowing it would be interpreted as an admission of guilt of the false charges that had led to his loss of wealth and freedom. It was nonetheless arranged that he would slightly 'lose face' while allowing Mr. Putin to retain his, bowing to world criticism over his abuse of power, and he was summarily released.

"This was done before the Sochi Olympics -- after ten years of the Russian image suffering tremendously from what the rest of the world saw as unjust persecution", stated Ariel Cohen, senior fellow for Russian and Eurasian studies at the Heritage Foundation, Washington. As the most prominent image of selective justice and the absent rule of law in Russia, Mr. Putin in one grandiose swoop removed the most egregious irritants to ensuring the Sochi Games success.

Speeding up release of the two female punk band Pussy Riot prisoners, as well as reprieving the thirty Greenpeace activists, and declaring an amnesty of 22,000 people most imprisoned for political activities opposing Mr. Putin's rule. That release still leaving ample numbers of political prisoners languishing in jail, but creating a very nice touch on Mr. Putin's part, showing the humanitarian side of the man.

It may not have occurred to him, however, that his reputation is as solid as granite by now, and nothing will reprieve him from the fairly generalized understanding that there stands a tyrant of the first water, taking his cue from Josef Stalin that power makes might and might makes right. Sochi will not be the resounding victory he envisions, not least because of the gay protest against Russian anti-gay legislation.

The ongoing tug-of-war between the Kremlin and the European Union over the fate of Ukraine, another issue that has painted Mr. Putin into a corner of defamatory dictatorial bullying, very well earned by the subtle threats given Ukraine's readily-persuaded president, and the princely gift of $15-billion to see him through to betraying his people and reinserting his country back into the Russian orbit of control.