Q-magazine

Robert Amsterdam, a Lawyer in troubled waters

23 Februarie 2009

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The lawyer of the imprisoned Russian oligarch Mikhail Khodorkovsky has chosen to adopt a radical line of defence: avoiding courtrooms in order to face off against the Russian government via the media.

A tactic which both irritates and worries members of the Yukos clan. Khodorkovsky’s intimates are more and more wondering about Amsterdam’s methods’ efficiency.

July, 2003. Robert Amsterdam meets Mikhail Khodorkovsky for the first time at a mysterious common friend’s office in Washington. He immediately understands that beyond a simple client, he probably has found a lifetime opportunity.

For this unknown Toronto lawyer, who had mainly specialized in international trading legislations, taking care of Khodorkovsky’s defence will undoubtedly give his career the boost it desperately needs.

Mid-2003, Khodorkovsky’s oil empire Yukos, built during the post soviet privatization era on the smoking ashes of the state-controlled economic system, is seriously threatened by a Russian justice system controlled by the new master of Moscow, Vladmir Putin.

It appears that the tide is finally turning for the Russian golden boy who, despite the fact he is only in his early 40’s, is considered the wealthiest man in Russia. Addicted to success and power, he became a serious threat to the Kremlin.

Khodorkovsky arrives in Washington on this summer day not only to ask Amsterdam to defend his friend and right-hand Platon Lebedev, who had just been arrested in Moscow, but also because he is well aware that soon enough he and his group will face justice.

On October 25th, 2003, Mikhail KHODORKOVSKY is arrested in a Siberian airport. Two years later he faces his judges in what will be remembered as a Stalin-style trial.

A journalist-friendly lawyer, Robert Amsterdam feels a lot more comfortable in front of journalists than in a courtroom. Moreover, he is not licensed to formally defend Khodorkovsky in Russian courtrooms.

However, he is the one who, from his hotel room, shaped Khodorkovsky’s defence strategy. Throughout the trial, he continuously managed to secretly communicate with his client.

Amsterdam based his strategy on the systematic denunciation of the political aspects of Khodokovsky’s indictment, forgetting at some points to respond formally to the charges he was indicted for.

This strategy was a total disaster. On May 31st, 2005, Mikhail Khodorkovsky is sentenced to nine years in jail. Since then, he is imprisoned in one of the harshest prisons in Russia: Camp 14/10 Siberia, known as the new Gulag of the Putin era.

“From a legal point of view, Amsterdam was all the way wrong. I truly believe that if he had worked a little more on his files instead of giving lessons to the judges, the lawsuit could have had quite a different ending”, insists, with a slight taste of bitterness, one of Khodorkovsky’s relatives.

“No one could have prevented Mikhail going to jail; Putin needed to set an example. But Amsterdam’s strategy really did not help”, said with regret the same person.

More and more people close to Khodorkovsky blame Amsterdam for his “American vision” of the case and his lack of understanding of Russian society.

A Soviet-style propagandist?

Amsterdam quickly learnt the lesson of his judicial failure and quickly decided to modify his battle plans. He realized that as he was facing a bold Russian justice system, his best chance to win was to fight the case in the media with the international public as judge.

Since 2006, he has totally lost interest in the legal aspect of the case, and launched a global media campaign in favour of his client. This new strategy has met with a lot more success than his performances in front of the judges.

Financed by the remainders of the Yukos group, Amsterdam succeeded in building in a few years a global communication network built around his web blog ( www.robertamsterdam.com ), written in five different languages and managed by a professional online communication team based in New York.

Amsteram also set up, without appearing in it, half a dozen “twin-blogs” dedicated to the Yukos case, run by the same communication agency.

These blogs, which have a growing success, are intended to broadcast Amsterdam’s articles as well as any press article defending Amsterdam’s point of view and therefore denouncing Russian government abuses (corruption, authoritarianism, arbitrary of judicial actions,...).

Monopolizing discussion, repeating over and over the same message, simplifying reality and therefore distorting the facts,... It appears that as the Wall Street Journal wrote in August 2008, Robert Amsterdam has become a “soviet-style propagandist”, deliberately using the tactics of his enemies.

His message, repeated as an irrefutable truth, gets even more credential in Western countries because of Putin’s obvious attempt to rule Russia in a totalitarian way.

In London, where Amsterdam is based, many lawyers wonder if Amsterdam’s blogging and lobbying activities do not represent a breach of his Lawyer’s legal obligations.

“The constant mixture of styles Robert Amsterdam plays on is problematic for a member of the London Law Society. He permanently switches caps and is at the least intriguing”, bemoans a London lawyer.

According to him, Amsterdam, also falsely claim to be registered at the bar of New York.

A fight for power disguised in fight for freedom

Mikhail Khodorkovsky

Most of the people agree to denounce Russia’s judicial masquerade on the Yukos case, but on another hand, how could anyone believe that Khodorkovsky could be held up to be some kind of Democratic and Liberal hero?

In the late 1990’s and early 2000’s, Mikhail Khodorkovsky was one of the most powerful men in Russia. He was very close to then Russian president Boris Yelstin and obviously benefited from heavy political connections.

Khodorkovsky and a few other “first generation oligarchs” were literally granted a “licence to steal” by the Kremlin, and shamelessly dismembered the Soviet-era state-owned economy for their own profit.

During these years, the Democratic and Human rights activist Amsterdam depicts was actually a rough, cold-blooded and megalomaniac businessman addicted to power and money.

No one could deny that Khodorkovsky’s demise was highly political. He was not the only one who took advantage of the Yeltsin system. The same exact charges which were held against him could have been held against any Russian businessmen of this time.

It is absolutely certain that Mikhail Khodorkovsky paid, and continues to pay for his ambition to get involved in politics. Putin obviously wanted to set an example for all other oligarchs: “I let you do business, do not even get close to politics”.

Ambiguous connections with secret services

Robert Amsterdam is fascinated by the spotlight but he also cultivates a part of shadow. Since he dashed into the Yukos case, a smell of sulfur accompanies his declarations about Russia.

According to persistent rumours stretching from Moscow to London, Amsterdam is said to maintain ambiguous relations with the secret services of certain number of western countries, starting with those of the United States and Great Britain.

According to a source close to the British services, Robert Amsterdam "was repeatedly approached to give information about the situation in Russia and about the Yukos case ". However, according to the same source, the information given by Amsterdam was «incomplete, basic and too emotional " to be used.

However, according to several other sources, Robert Amsterdam is regularly used in a much more active way by the US services, which use his blogs to broadcast a number of messages and certain information about Russia.

Let’s admit, as Amsterdam himself does, that being a kind of “propagandist” is the only way for him to efficiently fight a totalitarian regime; Let’s admit that working with US services could be some kind of a life jacket for him.

But what really matters at the end of the day, is that by the time Amsterdam comes back to his fancy London house, full of pride for his continuous fight for freedom, thousands of miles away, Mikhail Khodorkovsky is spending one more night in his infamous jail.

The only question we shall all ask to ourselves is: Does Amsterdam’s work in any way help his client. I tend to believe that creating an anti-Putin icon out of a jailed businessman will not help Khodorkovsky get out of jail any time soon.