The Games Have Begun. AGAIN.

(Little Fone Bone and Thorn are getting ready...)

The text below is quoted from lawyer Robert Amsterdam's blog. See the story as a whole in here, and don't miss the blogging before that one: Grigori Pasko blogged very interesting report from Chita region. That is one of the scariest prison camps created during the Stalin era, still in use, and where for example the ex-oil tycoon Khodorkovsky is currently being held. And, most likely Trepashkin (ex-FSB officer, now a lawyer) is being imprisoned somewhere in Chita.

Pay attention to the comment (below) of Robert Amsterdam: "It is clear that the games have begun once again."

Despite of its truthful context, it does sound like an uplifting line in a fantasy story; the tension before the Final Battle: "We all see the signs. It has started again. The Darkness is rising...

But this is not funny, and please don't think I am making fun of serious matters. I do agree with Amsterdam.

The games have begun. It is rising, the Purge has started again.

THERE you go (Amsterdam's blog):

"This evening in Moscow, lawyers of the defense teams for political prisoners Mikhail Khodorkovsky and Platon Lebedev, including lead lawyer Yuri Schmidt and Karinna Moskalenko, Yevgeny Baru, lead lawyer for Platon Lebedev, were detained by police at the airport on their way to Chita, taken to a station through a back door, and held for more than one hour without charges or explanation.

After much vigorous protest, a senior officer gave instructions for the release of the male prisoners, who were being held in one cell. At this time, the whereabouts of Karinna Moskalenko are still unknown.

In response to these warrant-less and unwarranted arrests, international defense counsel Robert Amsterdam issued the following comments:

“It is clear that the games have begun once again,” said Mr. Amsterdam. “The constant harassment of the legal team – which has included interception of communications, physical intimidation, disbarment, imprisonment, and deportation – apparently will continue as we prepare to defend our client from new, fraudulent charges. One can only continue to condemn these ongoing attacks as a further abuse of process which renders hollow any assertions by the Russian president about the 'dictatorship of law.' It’s just dictatorship.”



*****

Ps. Guess where Miss Funnybunny, Mr HP and I went today. Our annual tradition: Bikers' Fair. Gee, I could not have guessed some years ago I would actually come to like that happening so much. But, you know, motorcycles and all the leather-rubber stuff there belong to the kind of irrational, not-at-all-boring, and old-fashionably adventurous world I sometimes miss very much. But don't we all?