Demented obsession? Hardly. Its a logical power entrenchment. Khodorkovsky was the only remaining oligarch who had political ambitions. Putin's just showing him what the scenario is. Its a step that's going to destroy much of the investor faith in Russia that was slowly recovering, but Putin's hoping his effective propaganda machine can get around it.
It's a little much, me thinks. All he had to do is paint him as a blood-thirsty Jew. It's always worked in the past in Russia. Here's hoping Roman leaves the country when he's done as governor of Chukotka.
Ick. That hits a little too close to home. Blood-thirsty was never the right tag, however. Too damn smart for their own traitorous good or pagan Christ-killers usually did the job. Roman'll be fine. A lot of his money is abroad these days, and he's got no political aspirations once so ever. People forget Khodorkovsky was once a high ranking member of Comsomol (Russian youth communist league, roughly) - its not a shock he'd try his hand at politics. Also, it should be noted that Putin has failed mightily to bring recalcitrant oligarchs to justice once they escape Russia. England denied extradition of Berezovsky, and Greece didn't let Putin extradite Gusinsky.
Yes, my comments were a little snide. More accurately the impression I get is Russia will not elect a Jewish President. While not always at the surface, there has always been a deep-seated anti-sematism in many Russians, allowing any leader from a Party Secretary to a Tsar to distract the public by spotlighting the Jewish population. I'm not shocked about Khodorkovsky making a run at politics as he was a big donor to liberal parties (it wasn't Yabloko was it?) and he violated the no-politics pact Putin made with the oligarchs in 2000. I thought part of the deal with Greece not extraditing Gusinsky was that he requested and was granted Israeli citizenship? But I'm not worried about Roman. Even though he's governor, it's mostly for the immunity that it grants him from prosecution correct?