On YUKOS’s “transparency” and liberalism in Russia

Russian President Vladimir Putin has not enjoyed such worship as Khodorkovsky did, the media posed him as the savior of the country and the sufferer for us all. However, the people who contacted YUKOS CEOs, are well-aware that Khodorkovsky is far from being a “liberal”. Just the terrible thing happened – our society allowed them to believe in their own PR, in all the books they had written, in all the titles and awards they had received. They believed they were allowed to do anything.

We are living under totalitarianism. This renewed totalitarianism started much earlier than Vladimir Putin came to power, and is doing well under Putin’s rule. However, the latest events around YUKOS shareholders can change the established construction.

Russia cannot have the crisis of liberalism as we have never experienced liberalism in its traditional sense. Misters oligarchs declared the unlimited gangsterism of the Yeltsin’s epoch as liberalism.

We need not this kind of society, but really free and intelligent discussion. We, Russian citizens, can consider ourselves victims.

Whatever happens during the legal hearing on YUKOS, the truth will not be revealed. The crimes committed under the curtain of corruption and hidden by the “purchased” press, will remain unknown.

Petr Ermilin