Russia’s Lawless Legality
When Dmitri Medvedev was elected as Russia’s president a little more than a year ago, he promised to do away with the “legal nihilism” in Russia. But fresh charges against Mikhail Khodorkovsky, the imprisoned former owner of the oil company Yukos - and the legal vendetta against all those who were close to him - demonstrate that the problem has not gone away.
MOSCOW – Colonel Yuri Budanov is a convicted rapist and murderer. After serving half his prison sentence for the rape and murder of an 18-year-old Chechen, Elsa Kungayeva, he was released last December.