Russian minister boosts defense of imprisoned oil tycoon Khodorkovsky, charged with oil theft

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Russian minister boosts Khodorkovsky defense

MOSCOW — Imprisoned oil magnate Mikhail Khodorkovsky scored a key defense point in his $25 billion embezzlment trial Tuesday when a senior Russian official testified that he was unaware of such a widespread theft of oil.

Prosecutors have charged Khodorkovsky, once Russia’s richest man but now serving an eight-year sentence for tax evasion, with embezzling $25 billion worth of oil.

The 46-year-old Khodorkovsky faces up to 22 more years in prison if convicted of stealing the oil between 1998 and 2003, a feat his lawyers argue is impossible and could not have gone unnoticed.

They claim that both trials have been politically motivated, punishment for Khodorkovsky’s earlier involvement in politics to the displeasure of then-President Vladimir Putin, and say the second trial is designed to keep him in prison well past Russia’s 2012 presidential election.

Testifying for the defense, Industry and Trade Minister Viktor Khristenko told the court that, in his previous role as a deputy prime minister and board member of the state oil pipeline monopoly, he hadn’t known that Khodorkovsky’s company stole millions of tons of oil.

“The physical theft of oil from the pipeline network is a problem that has existed and continues to exist, and we regularly try to fight it,” Khristenko told the court. “But as for theft on such a scale, millions of tons of oil, I am not aware of any such incidents.”

It was the second apparent victory for Khodorkovsky in two days. On Monday, German Gref, the chairman of Russia’s largest bank and a former economy minister, testified that he would have been informed if theft on such a scale had occurred.

Khristenko’s testimony seemed to support this point. The defense argued that the minister would have noticed that 350 millions of tons of oil — or approximately an entire year’s worth of crude for Russia at the time — had gone missing.

Khodorkovsky’s supporters claim that his legal troubles are punishment for challenging Putin, the current prime minister who has declined to take the stand in the trial despite numerous requests from the defense.

Of the 20 senior Russian officials asked by the defense to testify, Gref and Khristenko are the only ones who have agreed.

Yet the fact that one of Putin’s ministers and most trusted allies took the stand demonstrates that the Russian government wants to legitimize the trial and the judicial system as a whole, defense lawyer Konstantin Rifkin said outside the courthouse.

“It gives a signal to the public that the court must be respected, even by the political elites,” he said.

Putin’s successor, President Dmitry Medvedev, has pledged to tackle corruption in Russia’s judicial system and improve the rule of law, but the politically tinged Khodorkovsky trial continues to be a stain on these efforts.