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Secondly, Yegorova was appointed to the chair of the Moscow City Court in flagrant breach of article 6.1 of the Russian Federal Law on the Status of Judges. Accordingly, all her rulings and appointments may be challenged as unlawful. In particular, Olikhver's appointment on her recommendation to the Moscow City Court, and the verdict of a court presided over by Olikhver. Against this background, one can hardly claim that the court for Pichugin's case was independent, impartial and lawfully constituted. Through such cases do we demonstrate to the world what Russian justice represents in its current form, how far its legal practice is from perfection, and also how the law-enforcement and judicial bodies are dependant on the authorities. And from such cases and trials do individuals and corporations gauge their personal safety and the safety of the rights and freedoms guaranteed by the law and the Constitution. Therefore our citizens' faith in the system of justice, to quote prominent Russian jurist Anatoliy Koni, "rests not on thousands of just verdicts delivered daily but on the rare occasion when one would fear a court to be subservient, indulgent and obedient to THE AUTHORITIES - but it proves otherwise." The Kremlin-controlled media are now attempting to convince us that everything happening to Yukos is the long-awaited "imposition of order" and that any means to this end are good means. All of the above allows one to assert that since 2000, the federal authorities in Russia, under the pretext of countering terrorism and the oligarchs, have been pursuing a consistent and deliberate policy to destroy the democratic establishment and supplant it with an authoritarian regime. Citizens' rights and freedoms are under attack. The primary goal of the Kremlin and the commercial and enforcement structures close to it is to retain power at any price and to continue to divide the spoils of property among themselves. And all available means are being harnessed: political and economic repression, persecution of independent journalists and media, provocation and deceit, falsification of judicial processes. In this context the Yukos case is a show trial, based on dubious accusations and fabricated evidence. The Kremlin, through the security structures, law-enforcement bodies and judiciary, has in one fell stroke removed a political rival in the person of Mikhail Khodorkovskiy and dismembered a hitherto successful and thriving business. And this act of repression is presented to the public in Russia and abroad as a benefit to the country and people and a restoration of justice. History proves many times over that political regimes constructed on fear and force are bound to fall. Is this lesson lost on us? Is it lost on the people, THE AUTHORITIES, the courts, the law-enforcement bodies? This raises questions which, I believe, nobody can answer. How many people are there in our country like Pichugin, unlawfully convicted on invented and dubious charges with fabricated evidence?
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