Grigori Pasko's latest installment on Robert Amsterdam's blog:

A Doormat for his Masters’ Feet…

By Grigory Pasko, journalist

Senior Investigator for Particularly Important Cases of the Procuracy-General of the Russian Federation Salavat Karimov, who had headed the investigation in two criminal cases against Mikhail Khodorkovsky, has announced that he is retiring. The simple explanation is that he was asked to turn in the Khodorkovsky and Lebedev case files and vacate his office. Alexander Bastrykin, Chairman of the Investigative Committee Attached to the Procuracy-General of the RF, would not employ Karimov in his agency, and when Procurator-General Yuri Chaika offered Karimov a position as an advisor as a consolation prize, the latter refused it as not commensurate with his experience.

He commented on the decision adopted thus to his colleagues: “After wiping their feet on me they still think I’m going to stay..."

Salavat Karimov (photo from www.newsru.com)

It is known that it was none other than Karimov who was the author of the formula of the accusation against Khodorkovsky and Lebedev, according to which they had stolen practically all the oil produced by the subsidiary production enterprises “Yuganskneftegas”, “Samaraneftegas”, and “Tomskneft VNK” in the years 1998-2004, and had legalized the greater part of the incomes revenues from the theft through foreign offshores. In the meantime, the lawyers of the accused Khodorkovsky and Lebedev have called this prosecution theory delusional.

Nevertheless, the lawyers refused to comment on the reason for Karimov’s retirement. Apparently professional ethics in the given instance stopped them.

In my case, though, it is precisely professional ethics that force me to speak my mind about Karimov and his ilk.

In my opinion, Karimov does not give the impression of a total idiot. Even though he did come up with such a groundbreaking piece of jurisprudence in his formula for the accusation as the theft of all the oil produced. All the more’s the pity for such a person who, even though he’s a rational human being, was not able to foresee that he would become a doormat for others to wipe their feet on. Actually, they’ve been wiping their feet on everybody. Using them like a certain latex product, and then tossing them out. God almighty, how many such cases there have already been in Russia’s history!

No need to delve deep into ancient history, either. I recall “my” case. The investigative brigade consisted of 24 persons – employees of the administrations of the FSB for Primorsky Kray and for the Pacific Fleet. After the completion of the first trial in the case of “the spy Pasko”, just about every one of them received awards and commendations and promotions in rank. But after the second trial, nearly all of them changed their duty postings, and some were even completely discharged from the service. They had become doormats on which others had wiped their feet. They had been used, like those same latex goods, and simply discarded.

True, the head of the investigative brigade was given a nice, cushy position in Moscow. But after a couple of years they made this position redundant. Where this “spycatcher” is today is of no interest to anyone, just like the man himself is of no interest. Because he’s just… a latex product.

I think that nobody will remember Karimov’s name in a couple of years either. Latex goods don’t have names. Just sobriquets or numbers – at best.

But it seems that this doesn’t bother the Karimovs of the world. Especially in their moments of fervent and devoted service to those who use them.

Then why should they feel offended later! If you’ve committed yourself to taking part in an unlawful business, then you’ve got to be ready for the possibility that you’ll be treated the same way yourself. And if you don’t go quietly into the good night, but start whining instead, you might just disappear. They will say: there never was such a person, he was just a figment of your imagination.

Besides, since when have latex articles been allowed to complain? It’s not their lot to whine, only to be used and discarded. Like Karimov, for example…