This video is the first outline I have seen of exactly what criminal acts Khodorkovsky’s has been charged with doing.

I know that the RT in the source of this video used to stand for Russia Today, so you can decide for yourself whether or not you want to believe what you hear. Of course the reporters are only saying that this is the prosecution’s case. They are not passing judgment on the veracity of the case.

At least we have some specific accusations that the defense can choose to refute or not. It gets us a little ways away from the argument that this case is just political versus no, it’s not.

To summarize, Khodorkovsky has been accused of transferring oil amongst his domestic companies at low prices until a final transaction got the oil out of Russia into a foreign company owned by Khodorkovsky. That company sold the oil at world market prices, the same oil it had acquired at cheap collusive prices.

This is the kind of thing for which Ken Lay and his Enron associates were convicted and sentenced to jail.

No wonder the people in this country who want to defend such practices are so dead set on claiming this was but a political trial.

Can you imagine if officers of U.S. companies had to work under this type of threat or the threats in China where some financial shenanigans garner a death sentence?

Now it is up to the people claiming this was a political trial to give us a defense against the specific acts with which Khodorkovsky has been charged.

Also note this report titled, Former oil tycoon ‘admits fraud’, may get lighter sentence. The ‘admits fraud’ part is in quotes, meaning this is the prosecution charge, not necessarily something borne out by the report.