From the editors of Khodorkovsky.com:

The prosecution of Khodorkovsky, and the wider Yukos affair, entailed repercussions far beyond the personal price Khodorkovsky, his associates and their families have paid or the financial losses suffered by Yukos investors. Khodorkovsky’s imprisonment and the destruction of Yukos have had enormous economic, political and social implications for Russia. These events were an integral part of a political transformation that now plagues Russia with an entrenchment of state corruption, economic stagnation, a lack of rule of law and a deficit of democracy. As a result, on the global stage Russia lacks trust, preventing more constructive engagement in the challenges and opportunities of the modern world.

The campaign against Khodorkovsky was a watershed event from which it became clear that in today’s Russia the authorities could and would act with impunity outside the law, even in full public view. An alarming string of cases of murder, torture and arbitrary detention of perceived enemies of the regime followed. Journalists critical of the Kremlin, such as Anna Politkovskaya and others, were murdered. Yukos executive Vasily Alexanyan was detained for two years in execrable conditions and was denied life-saving medical care for HIV infection and cancer that ultimately killed him. Anti-corruption lawyer Sergei Magnitsky was tortured to death in police custody for having dared to expose the illicit activities of state officials. A common dimension of these tragedies is the impunity enjoyed by any state officials involved.

Meanwhile, state-assisted raiding of businesses that refuse to pay bribes – or that become too successful for predators to resist expropriating them – is now commonplace. Victims have included foreign businesses and investors, such as Shell, Ikea and Hermitage Capital.

The use of bureaucrats or prosecutors to instrumentalise tax, bankruptcy, environmental regulations or other laws to raid private property for the benefit of state-connected insiders involves methodologies honed through the Yukos affair. Far from being a one-off, the tactics employed in the Yukos affair have become systemic in nature. From 2000 to 2009 approximately one out of six Russian entrepreneurs faced criminal charges, with a significant proportion of these cases resulting from corrupt officials abusing the law to facilitate unlawful seizures of property. The expansive repression of legitimate business in Russia, through “contract” or fabricated criminal cases with no real victims, is a serious obstacle discouraging Russian entrepreneurial activity – and it has landed thousands upon thousands of innocent entrepreneurs in jail.

According to the INDEM think tank, as cited by Freedom House, corruption annually costs Russia a staggering one quarter to one third of the value of its GDP: approximately $300 to $500 billion out of a GDP of roughly $1.5 trillion. Russia is ranked 154 out of 178 countries in Transparency International’s Corruption Perceptions Index, below even Iran, Libya and Zimbabwe.

Against this backdrop, Russia fails to attract significant foreign investment to help the economy to expand and modernise. GDP growth lags behind growth in the other BRICS countries. According to the Wall Street Journal, Russian stocks trade at a discount of approximately 30% compared to other emerging market shares – a phenomenon dubbed the “Khodorkovsky discount”.

For many of Russia’s global peers, the Khodorkovsky case and the Yukos affair were harbingers of the breakdown of the rule of law and the stalling of Russia’s economic and political development, and as such these events have created barriers to Russia’s external relations.

Following Khodorkovsky’s second conviction in December 2010, the US White House expressed its concern, declaring that Russia’s failure to keep a “commitment to universal values, including the rule of law, impedes its own modernization and ability to deepen its ties with the United States.” Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said Khodorkovsky’s case and others like it “have a negative impact on Russia’s reputation for fulfilling its international human rights obligations and improving its investment climate.”

The German Chancellor, Angela Merkel, issued a similar statement after Khodorkovsky’s second conviction, declaring: “This contradicts Russia’s frequently repeated intention to pursue full adoption of the rule of law.”

Meanwhile, the abysmal state of the rule of law in Russia pushed US lawmakers to devise a novel means of attempting to prevent or avenge the most brutal human rights abuses: the Magnitsky Rule of Law Accountability Act, which imposes asset freezes and visa bans on Russian officials involved in human rights abuses. The US legislation is inspiring similar measures in Canada and the European Union.

Across the world, many recognise that engagement with Russia is desirable for the benefits that a healthy, stable Russian economy with solid democratic governance will bring both domestically and internationally. However it is also recognised that this engagement must be within a constructive framework, built upon true respect for fundamental principles of market economics, the rule of law and democratic processes.

Russia has much work to do before it can reassure international investors and world leaders that it is truly committed to the end of the “legal nihilism” that erstwhile President Medvedev spoke of in 2008.

Khodorkovsky has received support throughout the world for an end to his persecution, from an array of NGOs, political leaders, academic experts and artists. His supporters have issued statements, passed resolutions, performed in charity concerts and participated in art exhibitions in aid of his release.