In the opposition

We are in the "Camp of Good"

January 16, 2010 Zoya Svetova

Two news in some surprising way coincided.

The Banner magazine awarded the literary prize Mikhail Khodorkovsky and Lyudmila Ulitskaya for their correspondence, published in the same journal. The European Court of Human Rights for the second time postponed a hearing on the complaint of Yukos to Russia.

The initiator of the transfer of the hearings was Russia. And the reason seems to be good - the national judge in this case Andrei Bushev is sick, and the authorized Russian government in Strasbourg, Georgy Matyushkin, could not come to the hearing: it should be in the State Duma - on Friday the long -awaited ratification of 14 protocol for the human rights convention is expected.

After Friday voting in the State Duma, Strasbourg judges should breathe free - for so many years they have sought from Russia this ratification. Due to her refusal, the reform of the Strasbourg Court was inhibited-hundreds of complaints, including from our country, accumulated on the judges.

Experts believe that the appointment of the date of ratification 14 of the protocol at the same time, which is assigned the consideration in the Strasbourg Court of complaints of the Yukos is not accidental. London lawyer Pierce Gardner has been challenging the legality of the bankruptcy of the company since 2004. He speaks of violations of the European Convention related to the right to a fair court and the right of ownership. The applicant believes that the property of the Yukos was confiscated illegally, fictitious tax claims were presented. The arrest of the company's assets did not allow her to pay. The price of the issue is compensation of $ 100 billion. The Strasbourg Court has already recognized this complaint acceptable, so we can expect that Russia will lose the case. Moreover, the amount of the awarded compensation is unlikely to correspond to the declared, but the decision in favor of Yukos is important not only from the material side. We are talking about the prestige of the country.

In fact, Strasbourg discusses not only a violation of property rights and the right to a fair court. We are talking about the recognition of the entire scheme used by the notorious Baikal Finance Group, which seized Yukos, is fraudulent.

Russia in every possible way draws the consideration of the case on this complaint. They say that Russian representatives who failed to agree with the Strasbourg court lost their place. Two Russian judges have already taken self -confrontation. The newly made judge began to study the case and now the bad luck - fell ill.

The hearings were postponed for a month and a half. What will change during this time? The State Duma ratifies the 14th protocol, and will soon accept some other laws regarding the Russian judicial system, for the adoption of which the European Court advanced. So what? The complaint of Yukos against Russia will not go anywhere. It will not be possible to agree with Strasbourg.

This is not Tver and not a fable court.

The fuss around the complaint of Yukos is annoyed. Participants in this story resemble the overcome schoolchildren who bite their nails and hide from the school principal for her mother’s skirt. The worst thing is that these very schoolchildren are Russian authorities, who are so afraid of the decisions of the Strasbourg Court and further hearings in the Arbitration Court in The Hague, which, without embarrassment, come up with various tricks, wanting to delay the inevitable sentence.

Against this background, the award of the literary prize Mikhail Khodorkovsky seems an important shift in the public consciousness. I foresee that I will be accused of excessive pathos, they will remind you that the banner magazine is a marginal edition and its bonus means little for the Russian population and even for most of the Russian society. Maybe this is so.

But the decision of the editorial office of the magazine "Banner" is, of course, an act. A few months ago, Prime Minister Putin promised that he would allocate money to “fat” magazines. Nevertheless, one of them was not afraid to give the Khodorkovsky award. This means that part of our intelligentsia has ceased to be afraid.

And overcoming fear is worth a lot.

And another consideration that immediately comes to mind.

The correspondence of Mikhail Khodorkovsky with Boris Akunin was published in the journal Eskweir in October 2008. After the publication of Khodorkovsky was put in a punishment cell.

The correspondence of Lyudmila Ulitskaya with the disgraced oligarch came out in October 2009 and received a literary prize.

(Writer Lyudmila Ulitskaya, Anastasia Khodorkovskaya
(daughter of Mikhail Khodorkovsky), deputy chief editor
Banner magazine Natalya Ivanova and General Director
All -Russian State Library of Foreign Literature Ekaterina Genieva (left to right) at the presentation ceremony
Literary Prize of the magazine "Banner")

Alas, this does not mean that the times have changed: in the Khamovnichesky court, it is also a re -process over Khodorkovsky and Lebedev, Yukos employee Alexei Kurtsin recently sentenced to 15, 5 years in prison, the Prosecutor General of the Russian Federation requires the extraction of Yukos’s treasurer Andrei Leonovich.

Everything is so.

And at the same time, not quite as before.

Whether you noticed, but for some reason about the second trial, we do not see the open letters of cultural figures. We do not hear artists, directors and TV presenters who would support Yukos’s injury. It seems to have become indecent.

But in the "Camp of Good" (the expression of "Novomirovsky" critic Mark Shcheglov) a little more people appeared.

And I am sure that this year their number will grow.

Photos of RIA Novosti