Russian Roulette.(ISSUES & INSIGHTS)(EDITORIALS)(Editorial)

Justice: The sentencing of billionaire Mikhail Khodor-kovsky to nine years in prison casts a pall over Russia's economy. Who wants to invest in a country where the government might seize your assets?

The 41-year-old businessman is getting little sympathy in his home country. Like other so-called oligarchs, he parlayed the government's corrupt privatization process in the 1990s into a controlling stake in Yukos -- Russia's No. 2 oil company.

Average Russians quickly tired of seeing privileged tycoons roaring around Moscow in their Mercedes limousines and Humvees. When President Vladimir Putin arrested Khodorkovsky in 2003 on spurious charges of fraud and tax evasion, few tears were shed.

Russians may come to regret that. Anger aside, they've been ill-served by Putin's putsch. He didn't just prosecute the oil tycoon and political foe -- he also seized Yukos' oil assets on spurious "tax evasion" charges.

This has sent a troubling message to capitalists -- both domestic and foreign -- about investing in Russia. Many are heading for the exits -- something Putin's government has come to realize.

"(The Yukos trial) caused a lowering of trust in the Russian economy," said Finance Minister Alexei Kudrin. "It will take some time to re-establish that trust."

Too bad, because Russia has made an impressive rebound from its troubled early post-communist years.