Letters from Budapest – a government that destroys its best

A trial has concluded in Moscow with the sentencing of the billionaire and former owner of Russia’s largest oil company Yukos. Mikhael Khodorkovsky will spend another long spell, six years, in prison.

In many ways this trial resembles the show trials of the Stalinist era, only here the man in the dock refused to plead guilty and walk the plank. The Khodorkovsky trial was farcical and the outcome was anticipated by the defendant; the Russian Prime Minister, Vladimir Putin had sent a clear signal to the judge as to what he expected him to do. The judge duly obliged.

Not that Mikhail Khodorkovsky is guilt-free. As oil minister in Boris Yelstin’s government, he had indeed amassed a huge fortune through possibly questionable means. He was like the many other oligarchs in Russia who were – and still are – free to do as they please so long as they stay quiet and out of Putin’s way. As Khodorkovsky himself said, he was not an ideal man but certainly ‘a man with ideals.’

There is little doubt that Khodorkovsky attempted with his money to take on Putin and possibly unseat him. He has paid a heavy price for that already. In a country where money can buy influence, perhaps Khodorkovsky realized that Putin – a former KGB agent – in power and more shadowy than ever, represented a sinister and unpredictable force and had to go.

Putin was much cleverer than Khodorkovsky and with the full power of the state behind him, Putin responded swiftly and brutally. In no time Mikhael Khodorkovsky was in prison and his company was re-appropriated by the state, proving that there is nothing so big that it cannot be brought down and destroyed. Yukos was big, real big and, at the time of its demise, probably the best run in Russia. At its peak in 2003, it was the world’s fourth largest oil producer and worth $40 billion – a dazzling valuation compared to its 1995 purchase price of $350 million.

Just when his release was imminent – his term was to end 2011 – fresh charges were brought against Khodorkovsky and in a 2010 trial that did not last too long, and the compliant judge handed over another harsh sentence. It is significant that the new term will keep Khodorkovsky in prison during Russia’s 2010 presidential elections.

Perhaps Khodorkovsky’s trial has not received the attention it deserves in India as it may appear to be irrelevant to events at home. Look closer and it is not so.

While we don’t have a Putin to ensure an upstart like Mikhael Khodorkovsky goes to prison and stays there, we do have a press and government that have clearly gone mad. We too are in the process of having our own versions of the Russian show trials, with people and institutions condemned before they have their day in court. It is all about viewership and readership and politics and turf wars within industry and between investigation agencies in Government. Private conversations between individuals that should have stayed private are now in the public realm and in print and on television for all to read and listen.

How did all this leak? That should not be difficult to establish. But no one is even trying to find out – for it is unsure whose turn at public crucification will be next. Such is the power that India’s faceless and politically pliant ‘watchdog’ agencies exercise over the public.

Why are we afraid to question people and institutions in power? Even when it was common knowledge early on that things were not straight with the 2G spectrum awards or the Commonwealth Games, no one intervened to put an end to the emerging rot. Not the press, not the opposition, not the institutions. These scams need never have occurred. Is it not in everyone’s interest to know why they were allowed to continue and proliferate instead of being stopped early on?

In more ways than one, we as a nation stand diminished when the state decides to be selective about everything – what to leak, when to go after people and institutions, when to export, when to fund, when to cheat, when to hold back. It is the arbitrariness that hurts our image as a country and our economy.

This is what Mikhael Khodorkovsky said in his final statement in court at his recently concluded trial:

A government that destroys its best companies, which are becoming world champions, a government that is suspicious of its people, that only trusts bureaucrats and special services, is a sick government. Hope is the central cause of reform and transformation. It guarantees success. If hope is suppressed, it gives way to disillusionment, then who and what will be able to pull Russia out of this current quagmire?’

How does this statement look if we substitute Russia with India? We are not that far from a similar fate.

Dr. Uday Balakrishnan, is a Visiting Fellow at the Central European University in Budapest.

This blog was exclusively written for Gateway House: Indian Council on Global Relations. You can read more exclusive content here.

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