Robo-Dunce Putin Flexes His Muscles--Medvedev Fights Back

The trial of Mikhael Khodorkovsky is as farcical as any show trial by Vlad Putin's hero Josef Stalin. Medvedev at least bleated back at Putin:

Putin, who has remained as powerful as ever since becoming Prime Minister in 2008, repeated throughout the trial that Khodorkovsky deserves to stay behind bars. Most recently on Dec. 16, less than two weeks before the verdict, he said on national television that "a thief should sit in prison."
This blatant bit of pressure on the court seemed to irritate President Dmitri Medvedev, a former lawyer, who said on Dec. 24 that no official "has the right to state his position about this case or any other case until the sentence is read." This was the clearest rebuke against Putin that Medvedev had ever made, and for Khodorkovsky's lawyers, it seemed to highlight their core dilemma.

Unless Medvedev mans up and grants a presidential pardon, Putin will run again and brush him aside like a used Kleenex. Russia is a tyranny of dunces and will remain so until