Members of the European Parliament are troubled by ‘deficiencies with regard to the rule of law’ in Russia. Twenty-five parliamentarians have signed an open letter to the Council of Europe’s Human Rights Commissioner, Thomas Hammerberg, in which they’ve expressed concern over the political situation in Russia - the occasion for the letter being Russia’s accession to the chairmanship of the Council of Europe’s Committee of Ministers. Stressing that ‘the human-rights situation in Russia fails to meet European standards’, the signatories are especially concerned with the circumstances surrounding the arrest, trial and imprisonment of Khodorkovsky and Lebedev. ‘In the matter of Mikhail Khodorkovsky and Platon Lebedev, we question the impartiality, fairness and objectivity of the authorities, who appear to have gone overboard in disregarding the fundamental rights of the defence. Their very lives’, they say, ‘which are the personal responsibility of the highest authorities in the land, are now in danger’.