Enemy of the State: The Sequel

The latest trial of Russian oil baron Mikhail Khodorkovsky opened today in Moscow. Predictably, he lost his opening motion.

The judge in Khamovnichesky District Court brushed aside a request that he step down to avoid the appearance of bias. Defense lawyers, led by Vadim Klyuvgant, had argued in a closed-door hearing that the court had no jurisdiction, and that the new charges were part of a Kremlin conspiracy to keep their client in prison.

Khodorkovsky, who became Russia's richest man as the head of the former oil giant Yukos, was convicted in 2005 of fraud and tax evasion charges and sentenced to eight years in prison. Including time served before his trial, Khodorkovsky is scheduled to be released in 2011.

Now, however, he faces a raft of new fraud charges that could land him in jail for another 22 years if he's convicted. This new trial, like the first one, is widely seen as part of a government campaign to punish him for becoming a political rival to then-President Vladimir Putin.

Russian government intimidation and questionably tactics in the first Khodorkovsky trial were documented in a Condé Nast Portfolio article, "Enemy of the State," last August.