To the Point

Yukos, Mikhail Khodorkovsky and Putin's Russia

Russia-s wealthiest man was back in his cage in a Moscow courtroom today, in shackles and on trial for fraud and evading billions in taxes. Mikhail Khodorkovsky is the so-called -oligarch- who built Russia-s biggest oil company, but he-s run afoul of elected President Vladimir Putin. The founder of Yukos, who has languished in prison since he was arrested at gunpoint in his private jet last October, has again offered to give up his 44 percent stake in Russia-s biggest oil company. Warren Olney joins journalists, a spokesman for Yukos, and political scientists specializing in Russian politics and economic development, for a look at Russia-s evolution from Communism. Does Putin want free-market capitalism or a new kind of dictatorship? Does Russian democracy have a future? Making News: NAACP Criticizes Republicans The National Association for the Advancement of Colored People is officially nonpartisan, but leaders at this week-s annual convention have excoriated President Bush for not showing up and the Republican Party for -the politics of racial division.- The NAACP convention is in Philadelphia, where Vernon Clark is covering it for the Inquirer. Reporter's Notebook: Groupthink Seen as Culprit in the Move to War Students of policy say fateful decisions involving Cuba's Bay of Pigs, the Vietnam War, and space shuttle Challenger were based, in part, on -Groupthink.- Now, the Senate Intelligence Committee blames it for the Bush administration-s decisions on Iraq. Even some Republican Senators say if they-d known before what the Committee has reported, they might not have approved the invasion. New Yorker columnist James Surowiecki is the author of The Wisdom of Crowds.