Bundestag deputies are worried about the Khodorkovsky case and the cases of other Russian prisoners.

Members of the Alliance ’90/Green Party group in the German Bundestag have sent a special request to the government. Is Berlin prepared to interfere in Russian affairs?

‘Prison conditions and arbitrary treatment in the Russian penal system’ was the title of a brief enquiry recently sent by deputies to the German government. The authors of the document are members of the Alliance ’90/ Green Party opposition group; and their aim is not only to call attention to the plight of Russian prisoners, but also to demand that members of the government work to improve it. In an interview with the Deutsche Welle radio editor’s office, the prime mover behind the enquiry, Green Party deputy Marieluise Beck, comments:

Is it realistic at all to believe that the German government can really achieve anything in this area? More importantly, will it actually try?

I’ll only be able to answer this question when I’ve had a reply. I’m starting from the position that, as far as topics discussed within European or international organizations are concerned, Germany is prepared openly to disagree with Russia. In this particular case, then, one can for example cite the fact that Russia, in joining the Council of Europe, voluntarily took on all those responsibilities that stem from its fundamental principles. . .

The deputies’ enquiry mentions names like Sutyagin, Danilov and Trepashkin, as well as Khodorkovsky and Lebedev. Do you think they suffer more than other prisoners?

I wouldn’t put it like that. You can’t measure suffering on a 10-point scale. But the trials of each of these people, all of which involved gross violations of the law, set precedents. That’s why each one is mentioned separately. On the other hand, we know that there are any number of people in Russian prisons and camps who’ve simply been forgotten about. That’s why our enquiry concentrates in the first place on prison conditions - quite apart from specific names.

The chairman of the US CongressÕs House International Relations Committee said the other day that he believes Mikhail Khodorkovsky to be a political prisoner. What do you think of this? Does Russia currently have political prisoners?

If you look at the cases of Sutyagin and Danilov, who were accused of publishing state secrets, even though the materials involved were widely available, our standpoint was that their intimidation was politically-motivated. Their cases were above all a sort of signal to others - if you step out of line, you too will face imprisonment. So the point of these cases was political intimidation

What about Khodorkovsky?

I keep in touch with Khodorkovsky’s lawyer, Yuri Scmidt, an exceptionally decent man who’s not given to making emotional statements. Schmidt is convinced that this case is at bottom political, and is demonstrably so in decisions like the one to move Khodorkovsky to a remote colony (which is totally against Russian law). The fact that criminal law and legal principles have been flouted in a case involving well-known people like these undoubtedly suggests a political bias.

(Vyacheslav Yurin, Deutsche Welle, 24.02.2007)