APEC and Pussy Riot
Tim Wall - Moscow News editorial - themoscownews.com - 8.20.12 - JRL 2012-150

At first sight, there should be no reason to mention the APEC summit in Vladivostok and the Pussy Riot trial in the same sentence, let alone suggest that one could affect the other.

Yet, bizarrely, that is exactly what is happening.

While there is acknowledgement by Russia's international partners that the workings of the country's judicial system are a sovereign matter, in today's highly globalized economy, no country is ever completely an island when it comes to applying the rule of law.

Whatever one thinks of the rights and wrongs of the Pussy Riot protest, the case has troubled leading domestic and international business figures alike ­ precisely because it has presented Russian courts as subject to pressure from the authorities.

file photoWhile staging a punk protest in a place of worship would likely lead to prosecution and minor charges in many countries, the severity of the punishment meted out to these three young women is clearly due to the political overtones of the case ­ no matter what the prosecutors may say about its strictly "anti-religious" nature.

Alexei Kudrin, the former finance minister, summed up a general feeling when he commented that Pussy Riot was "yet another blow to the justice system and, above all, Russian citizens' belief in it."

The Pussy Riot case spooks investors not because they necessarily sympathize with the protesters. Rather, they see it as yet another example of arbitrary "telephone justice" ordered from above, in the same way that investors saw the Khodorkovsky and Magnitsky cases as ones where high placed officials intervened in favor of powerful political and business interests.

With Vladivostok just a couple of weeks away, the bad PR generated by the Pussy Riot case will cast an unwelcome shadow over the APEC summit, supposed to be the flagship event of Russia's year as host of the increasingly influential group of economies.

Media headlines are now focused on by Russia's troubled justice system ­ undoing much of the Kremlin's work to boost Russia's image through the summit.

Leaving the morality of the Pussy Riot protest and the vindictive prosecution to one side, the case could end up costing Russia not just some badly needed positive headlines ­ but also billions of dollars in foreign investment.

Keywords: Russia, Protests, Politics, Pussy Riot - Russia, Far East, APEC - Russia, Law - Russian News - Russia - Johnson's Russia List

At first sight, there should be no reason to mention the APEC summit in Vladivostok and the Pussy Riot trial in the same sentence, let alone suggest that one could affect the other.

Yet, bizarrely, that is exactly what is happening.

While there is acknowledgement by Russia's international partners that the workings of the country's judicial system are a sovereign matter, in today's highly globalized economy, no country is ever completely an island when it comes to applying the rule of law.

Whatever one thinks of the rights and wrongs of the Pussy Riot protest, the case has troubled leading domestic and international business figures alike ­ precisely because it has presented Russian courts as subject to pressure from the authorities.

file photoWhile staging a punk protest in a place of worship would likely lead to prosecution and minor charges in many countries, the severity of the punishment meted out to these three young women is clearly due to the political overtones of the case ­ no matter what the prosecutors may say about its strictly "anti-religious" nature.

Alexei Kudrin, the former finance minister, summed up a general feeling when he commented that Pussy Riot was "yet another blow to the justice system and, above all, Russian citizens' belief in it."

The Pussy Riot case spooks investors not because they necessarily sympathize with the protesters. Rather, they see it as yet another example of arbitrary "telephone justice" ordered from above, in the same way that investors saw the Khodorkovsky and Magnitsky cases as ones where high placed officials intervened in favor of powerful political and business interests.

With Vladivostok just a couple of weeks away, the bad PR generated by the Pussy Riot case will cast an unwelcome shadow over the APEC summit, supposed to be the flagship event of Russia's year as host of the increasingly influential group of economies.

Media headlines are now focused on by Russia's troubled justice system ­ undoing much of the Kremlin's work to boost Russia's image through the summit.

Leaving the morality of the Pussy Riot protest and the vindictive prosecution to one side, the case could end up costing Russia not just some badly needed positive headlines ­ but also billions of dollars in foreign investment.