The final decision in the Russian trial against former oil oligarch Mikhail Khodorkovsky has drawn dramatic statements of protest from the US Obama Administration and governments around the world labeling Russian justice as tyrannical and worse. What is carefully omitted from the Khodovkorsky story however is the true reason Putin arrested and imprisoned the former head of Russia’s largest private oil giant, Yukos. Khodorkovsky’s real crime was not stealing Russia’s assets for a pittance in the bandit era of Yeltsin.
The Chinese are massively expanding their involvement in Africa. They position themselves not as brazen colonizers or debt collectors. They are doing business that the Europeans think is too insignificant. Andthat is why with each passing day their presence grows stronger.
