Quick Edit | Power play in Moscow

And so, Mikhail Khodorkovsky, the oligarch who made his fortune in the 1990s and ran foul of the establishment in the 2000s, has been found guilty in the second major case against him. He is already serving an eight-year sentence that began in 2005. Many people in Russia and elsewhere were looking at the trial as a proxy measure of the control Russia’s former president Vladimir Putin has over its current one, Dmitry Medvedev. Putin has never shied away from voicing his opinion that the tycoon, who supported opposition leaders in his prime, should be put away for a long time. Medvedev’s response to the second Khodorkovky trial was much more measured. The ruling could well indicate that Putin continues to call at least some of shots in Russia despite Medvedev’s growing profile over the past few years and that he could well run for the presidency in 2012.