A former adviser to Deng Xiaoping and confidante of former President Jiang Zemin (whose political influence is now waning), Li was among the first to invest in China after the Tiananmen Square massacre of 1989. He long touted the motto, I don t do anything against China s interest, and I don t say anything that may hurt China s reputation.

When Dmitry Medvedev was elected as Russia s president a little more than a year ago, he promised to do away with the legal nihilism in Russia. Although he was a close confidante of Vladimir Putin and probably was able to assume presidential office exclusively for that reason, many dared to hope that he would stop the vendetta against Khodorkovsky and all those who had been close to him.