Medvedev could restore some semblance of the rule of law in Russia by putting an end to Khodorkovsky's ordeal.

Stalinist show trials ended a long time ago in Russia but the modern-day Putinist variety continues to lock away political opponents in Siberia.

Under then-President Vladimir Putin, Yukos CEO Mikhail Khodorkovsky was arrested at gunpoint in 2003, tried on dubious charges of tax evasion and fraud, convicted in 2005 and sentenced to eight years. Under now-Prime Minister Vladimir Putin, the former oil tycoon faces additional charges of embezzlement that could add 22 years to his jail time. It's safe to say that Mr. Khodorkovsky, who had political ambitions before his arrest, won't be around for the 2012 presidential elections, when Mr. Putin may try to retake the Kremlin.

Mr. Khodorkovsky and his co-defendant, former Yukos executive Platon Lebedev, are now on trial again in Moscow. We couldn't possibly better describe the Kafkaesque nature of Russia's legal system than the accused himself. Here's Mr. Khodorkovsky's response, in court last month, to the accusations of oil theft:

"They have charged me -- really and truly -- with the physical seizure in secret of 350 million metric tons of oil as if we are talking about a bucket of paint pilfered by a stockman from a warehouse, or about a piece of sausage a sales clerk has hidden in a coat pocket and carried out from a shop." He goes on: "One can imagine the embezzlement of a barrel, a vat, a rail car. . . .Now these 'super-sleuths' are talking about 350 million tons of oil for which one would need a railroad train so long, it would encircle the Earth three times."

The prosecutors further claim that by some magic the defendants embezzled oil that was at the same time accounted for and heavily taxed. Yukos "never reported nor established any oil missing," Mr. Khodorkovsky said, and it paid $45 billion in taxes for the 1998-2003 period. " Yet if I stole the oil, then on what basis did Yukos pay taxes? On oil I had supposedly stolen?"

When Dmitry Medvedev took over the presidency last year he bemoaned the "legal nihilism" in his country. He can restore some semblance of the rule of law -- and prove that he's not just holding Mr. Putin's Kremlin seat warm -- by putting an end to this farce.

Printed in The Wall Street Journal, page A12

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