The verdict of a Moscow court that was to have begun 15 December in the trial of former Yukos Oil owner Mikhail Khodorkovsky has unexpectedly been postponed until 27 December. No reasons were given by the court’s spokesperson.
In his current trial Khodorkovsky is accused of stealing millions of tons of his company’s oil and laundering the proceeds, and faces many more years in prison. The case is widely seen as politically motivated and the verdict will depend on decisions taken in the Kremlin, lawyers familiar with the case say.
Khodorkovsky is serving an eight-year sentence for tax evasion and fraud. He would be released next year.
Links to other sites: Bloomberg, Reuters, Ria-Novosti
News out of Russia today, 15 July: 1,200 people in Russia are reported to have drowned, most of them drunk at the time, while trying to escape from the heat, according to CNN: “Vadim Seryogin, a department head at Russia’s Emergencies Ministry, told reporters Wednesday that 49 people, including two children, had drowned in the last day. More than 1,200 total have drowned, 223 of them between July 5 and July 12. ‘The majority of those drowned were drunk,’ Seryogin said. “The children died because adults simply did not look after them.’”
Russian Formula 1 fans will turn their eyes on the Kremlin Sunday 18 July, when “Jensen Button and Russia’s first Formula One driver, Vitaly Petrov, speed around the Kremlin on Sunday at the Bavaria Moscow City Racing, now an annual race around the center of Moscow” reports the Moscow Times.
And Russians are warming up to the 25 July visit to Moscow by “beauty and mother of six” Angelina Jolie’s to promote her new movie “Salt” about a CIA agent accused of spying for Russia, timely given the talk about town in Moscow about Russians spying in the US, says Ria Novosti.
No end yet to Start talks in Geneva
Geneva, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) – US President Barack Obama met Russia’s President Dmitry Medvedev on the fringes of the Apec meeting in Singapore 14 November, to discuss the resumption of the Start talks on reducing both countries’ nuclear arsenals. Obama hailed the “excellent progress over the last few months”repors the Moscow Times. The Start talks resume in Geneva Monday 16 November.
The current treaty expires 5 December, and though hopeful that a new treaty will be hammered out before the end of the year, Obama’s team suggests a bridging agreement may be necessary because the treaty is unlikely to be signed and ratified in time, reports Fox News.
Russia ended its more than 10-year counter-terrorism operation in Chechnya in an attempt to restore and develop the economic and social infrastructure, according to a BBC report. Chechnya’s pro-Kremlin President Ramzan Kadyrov has helped to stabilize the country, according to Moscow. Human rights groups accuse his militias of abuse. Al Jazeera
