Originally from The Journal of Eurasian Law (JEL)

This report was written at the request of the Presidential Council of the Russian Federation on the Development of Civil Society and Human Rights. The report analyzes the December 2010 verdict that convicted Mikhail Khodorkovsky and Platon Lebedev of embezzlement and money laundering for compliance with Russia’s obligations under the European Convention on Human Rights. Readers may appreciate a short summary of how it came to be and what became of it.

The report resulted from an e-mail that I received on April 1, 2011. The e-mail appeared to have been sent from “Т. Морщакова” and presented the subject line: “Предложение Совета по развитию гражданского общества и правам человека при Президенте РФ об участии в экспертизе по делу” (“Proposal of the Council on the development of civil society and human rights of the President of the Russian Federation about participation in the examination of a case”). The e-mail was empty save for a single attached Microsoft Word document.

I was not expecting an e-mail from a highly distinguished former justice on the Constitutional Court of the Russian Federation.1 This one arrived in a slightly mysterious form on, of all days, April Fool’s Day. A small seed of doubt was planted. My first act, therefore, was to consult some computer specialists to verify that the attachment was free from any computer virus or disguised malware. Had they not confirmed the attachment’s authenticity and safety, I might well have deleted it.