The three-week postponement of judgment in the trial of Mikhail Khodorkovsky, once Russia's richest man, scarcely comes as a surprise to cynical Russians. A harsh jail sentence would have been an international own-goal for Vladimir Putin, the Russian president, ahead of extravagant celebrations in Moscow to mark the 60th anniversary of the May 9 allied victory over Germany. Mr Putin will entertain many of the world's leaders to show what a benign democrat he is at heart.

More sensitive at home, the Khodorkovsky verdict was due on the eve of the Russian Easter celebrations. The timing might have been taken as a particularly unpleasant example of ruthlessness from Mr Putin, who is supposed to be a practising Christian himself. Whether they love Mr Khodorkovsky or hate him, Russians take for granted that the case against the former head of Yukos, the oil giant, is about power, and not about the tax fraud and related offences of which he is accused. He was becoming increasingly active in funding opposition political parties, charities and civil society organisations dedicated to building a democratic Russia. He threatened to create an alternative power centre to the Kremlin.