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Harsh U.S. words for Russia, but little impact on ties
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Harsh U.S. words for Russia, but little impact on ties
Reuters - 1 hour 21 minutes ago
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By Arshad Mohammed and Ross Colvin
WASHINGTON - The United States suggested on Thursday the sentencing of a former Russian tycoon to six more years in prison was an abuse of justice, and a senior U.S. official said it may impede Russia's entry into the World Trade Organisation.
Despite the harsh U.S. words, analysts said the treatment of Mikhail Khodorkovsky and his co-defendant Platon Lebedev was unlikely to undercut the White House effort to work with the Kremlin where it can on strategic and security issues.
A Russian judge ordered Khodorkovsky jailed until 2017 after being convicted of theft and money-laundering in a case seen by the West as a test of the rule of law in Russia and as a political vendetta against an adversary of Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin.
Once Russia's richest man and head of a major oil company, the now-defunct Yukos, Khodorkovsky is in the final year of an eight-year sentence imposed after a politically charged fraud and tax evasion trial that shaped Putin's 2000-2008 presidency.
In the second trial, prosecutors said he and Lebedev stole nearly $30 billion in oil from Yukos subsidiaries through price mechanisms and laundered some of the money. Khodorkovsky's lawyers dismissed the charges as an absurd pretext to keep him in jail.
U.S. officials said the case raised serious questions about Russia's commitment to the rule of law.
"We remain concerned by the allegations of serious due process violations, and what appears to be an abusive use of the legal system for improper ends, particularly now that Khodorkovsky and Lebedev have been sentenced to the maximum penalty," U.S. State Department spokesman Mark Toner said.
When Khodorkovsky and Lebedev were convicted on Monday, U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton had said their second trial raised serious questions about the apparent selective application of the law to them.
"Simply put, the Russian government cannot nurture a modern economy without also developing an independent judiciary that serves as an instrument for furthering economic growth, ensuring equal treatment under the law, and advancing justice in a predictable and fair way," Toner added.
'VERDICT THREATENS WTO BID'
A senior Obama administration official suggested Khodorkovsky's sentence will make it harder for Russia to join the WTO.
"It is not going to help their cause, it is only going to complicate their cause," the official told Reuters.
"The WTO is a rules-based, rule of law organisation. Most countries around the world do not look at this verdict as a demonstration of the deepening of the rule of law in Russia. It will definitely have an effect on Russia's reputation," the official, who spoke on condition of anonymity, added.
Obama has backed Russia's campaign for WTO membership, which would boost foreign investment in that country. Putin has said he expects Russia to join the WTO in 2011.
Asked whether Obama would call Russian President Dmitry Medvedev to discuss the verdict, he said: "They have spoken about this case repeatedly in previous meetings. I suspect next time they talk this will be a subject."
The official said the verdict was unlikely to affect the Obama administration's efforts to reset relations with Moscow.
"We are going to pursue our interests across the board and not link our cooperation on Iran to what is happening with Mr Khodorkovsky. That is another aspect of our relationship.
"That said, promoting the rule of law and advancing democracy in Russia is also a goal of the Obama administration. Regarding that goal, this feels like a setback."
Matthew Rojansky, deputy director of the Russia and Eurasia Program at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, said there was nothing the United States could do to prevent Khodorkovsky from being removed from Russia's political scene.
"It would be wrong to say that this administration is going to take a complete blind eye to moral issues, human rights issues, democracy issues," the analyst added.
"But they have this very explicit dual track policy which says we are going to do business, we are going to keep working together where we have shared interests, but we are going to speak out loudly and often on our areas of disagreement."
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