The other day the latest hearing in the new trial of Yury DMITRIEV took place. It has been six weeks since the Petrozavodsk City Court, in closed regime, heard more evidence from the prosecution.

This time round, clearly, there is no rush to convict and, it would seem, a preference for people elsewhere, e.g. supporters in Russia who travel to Karelia to wait outside the courtroom or the courthouse in a demonstration of solidarity, to be denied anything to discuss.

That includes curious foreigners.

True, the Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov did respond to a question about the case from a Finnish journalist when he was abroad … The reply was not reassuring. More tomorrow.

JC