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Fresh Start for German-Russian Ties

Steinmeier Met Lawyer of Jailed Tycoon Khodorkovsky

Russian President Dmitry Medvedev is coming to Berlin this week and his pledge to strengthen the rule of law is likely to be on the agenda. Jailed oil tycoon Mikhail Khodorkovsky could also become a talking point after it emerged that the German foreign minister recently met his lawyer in Russia.

Russian President Dmitry Medvedev is due in Berlin this week on his first European visit since taking office last month. Chancellor Angela Merkel is expected to discuss a range of issues with him including his declared commitment to strengthening the rule of law in Russia.

The issue of jailed oil tycoon Mikhail Khodorkovsky may well be aired after it emerged this weekend that German Foreign Minister Franz-Walter Steinmeier had met with the famous inmate's lawyer during his trip to Russia in mid-May. According to information obtained by SPIEGEL, Steinmeier met with Khodorkovsky's attorney in a St. Petersburg hotel to discuss the possibility of getting the former oligarch transferred from his Siberian jail, where he is serving an eight-year sentence, to Moscow. A German diplomatic source confirmed to Reuters on Saturday that the meeting had taken place.

Khodorkovsky, former boss of oil company Yukos, was arrested in 2003 and was found guilty of fraud and tax evasion in 2005. Many in the West regard his downfall as being the result of Kremlin-led campaign to punish him for his political ambitions. In an interview with The Sunday Times last month he said that: "In an independent court, only a complete idiot would swallow the kind of case brought against me." Prosecutors are preparing a new case against him based on money-laundering and embezzlement charges. On Saturday a crowd of around 40 pro-Khodorkovsky supporters gathered in Moscow to mark the third anniversary of his sentencing.

On Friday, Russia's new Prime Minister Vladimir Putin said that he would advise his successor in the Kremlin against granting Khodorkovsky any "privileges." He told Le Monde newspaper during his visit to Paris that the ex-Yukos boss had "broken the law, repeatedly and flagrantly." However, he insisted that the decision on what to do with him was now up to Medvedev.

Germany is hoping that relations between the West and Moscow which deteriorated under Putin will now improve. Steinmeier is a believer in quiet diplomacy rather than public criticism and he has clashed with Merkel in the past, slamming her for "shop window" politics by taking a tough public stance on human rights in Russia or China. Steinmeier is on good terms with Medvedev. The two got to know each other when Steinmeier was chief of staff for former Chancellor Gerhard Schröder.

In Moscow too, there are hopes for a fresh start with the Medvedev era. The Russian business weekly Expert Magazine wrote that one of the main tasks facing the new president is to use his new style to help the West "make its peace with Russia."

smd/reuters/dpa/spiegel