A friend of mine asked me to give a shout-out to this issue, and I am, because Russia is in its own way just as scary as China (they have more nukes, for one thing).
Mikhail B. Khodorkovsky is the former leader of Yukos Oil, a privately-owned Russian energy company, and an outspoken critic of Vladimir Putin. He was thrown in jail shortly after he funded political opposition parties in Russia. Within a year the Russian government seized Yukos' assets and gave them to the state-owned oil company called Rossneft. Additional charges of tax evasion suddenly appeared shortly before Khodorkovksy was scheduled for parole. Everyone from Colin Powell to the late Tom Lantos has called for their release. You can find more information at: www.letthemgonow.org
A couple of months ago, a Russian Human Rights Lawyer named Lev Ponomorev came to the US to try to drum up media attention in the US about the topic. Last week, BBC reported his offices in Russia were raided and occupied by unidentified people. The story is here.
